The Father of All Monsters
by detrametal
Summary: Seven years have passed since the Teen Titans dispersed into the four winds, Robin back to Gotham, Raven, Starfire and Cyborg to wander the world. New people have tried to step into the world of these heroes only to die. When facing Death Typhon fears nothing, but what about those who abandoned him?
1. Chapter 1

Slipshot was a small time heroine. She knew it and so did her city. But she did her job even though there were others in the city as well. But never did she expect what happened after her patrol.

It had been a routine night with only a few busts, a drug dealer and a few muggings, as the night started to die she retreated to her apartment and immediately went to the sink to wash off her dark face paint and the few cuts she got that night. The small apartment was shaped like a 'T' the entrance was a short hall before you could go left or right, the left was her small bedroom with the attached bath, but she took a right into the small kitchen/living room where she was wiping the paint and blood off after she took off the hockey mask.

Even if she had turned around she wouldn't have seen the silhouette that was seated, he prided himself on being unseen when he wanted to. "Abigail Westlin"

The woman spun and her hand went to the electric gun at her waist. Drawn and pointed she squinted to see the man, it was too dark, the only light coming from the window across the room, her night vision could only distinguish brights and dims, everything about him was dark except the two bandages that formed a low-slung 'X' across his face covering both his eyes "Who the hell are you?" she hissed.

He didn't move "I'm somebody you are aware of."

She growled with her finger itched to pull the trigger "Then why are you in my house?"

"To offer you a job"

She snarled "You can't buy me!"

He gave a light chuckle "I'm not trying to. I'm offering you a chance to join something bigger"

It was odd, his voice, his inflection, his very aura was…honest. She turned and continued to clean her face "I know of at least four heroes in this city with better records than me, ask one of them"

"I though about them. But they only solve what crimes they know they can and only when the spotlight is on them. They just want the glamour, you rush in no matter if you know you can win or not. I need somebody like you."

Holding the rag to cover the bottom half of her face she turned and looked at this mystery person, cursing herself for not leaving a light on. "How big are we talking?"

There was a smile in his voice "One of the top"

She took off her jacket and dropped it on the table to the right of the man and sat down facing him "I got that. But it doesn't tell me anything"

Slowly he set something down on the table and scooted it over to her. She picked it up and nearly dropped it. She clutched it to her chest and couldn't fight the smile across her face "I'll take that as a yes" she nodded emphatically as she stared at the yellow and black communicator with a distinct 'T' in the middle.

He handed her a slip of paper disappeared seemingly into thin air. Her fingers trembled as she picked it up. A 1st class plane ticket for two weeks later to Jump City.

* * *

Abigail or "Abby" to her friends had trouble sitting still on her flight, she was far too excited to work with the Titans. Never in her wildest dreams would she have thought of being able to work with the heroes that were only a little bit older than she was. When they formed she followed them religiously. Now as she found herself standing in the baggage claim looking for somebody the mayor's office had told her would be there.

He was a broad man, built like a military poster boy with arms like footballs and a height that left him towering over everybody else, but he wore a suite with ease and the small sign in his hand had her name. He smiled and led her to a car with the city crest on it, they didn't talk much on the way out of the air port but he hummed along with the songs on the radio. It wasn't until he hit the main road that he spoke "So you'll be working with the Titans?"

She found her voice after a moment "Y-Yeah, I'm really nervous…"

Her driver smiled and looked to her in the passenger seat "You'll do fine, Beast Boy doesn't invite someone until he's sure how it'll pan out. Oh" he seemed to start "How rude of me, my name's Brian"

She shook the offered hand "You already know who I am…so…" she trailed off as she caught sight of the vibrant scars on his hand

He noted her stare and chuckled "Well, seeing as they have some bearing on your job I can share that story" he stared out across the dash for a moment "I was with the Green Barrettes for many years…we were in the Amazon working with the South Americans to find a villain who stole a nuclear bomb…we had been searching and fighting off his forces for weeks. We had lots of wounded and couldn't maneuver very well…we were told that we had the best reinforcements in the Americas…imagine our shock when it was the Titans!" he laughed out loud for a moment before quieting and allowing the smile to fade a bit. "We thought they were just a bunch of brats…but Beast Boy saved us so many times, from telling us where the ants were to asking the snakes to leave us alone. He took a bullet for me you know? They all scouted and within a day they got our job done." he fell into a thoughtful silence until he stopped at the edge of the bay.

"Um, what are we…do…ing…" she trailed off as a large bridge rose out of the water and Brian slowly drove across the bridge before stopping right before the actual island.

He opened his door and by the time she scrambled out he had her bags "Sorry, but nothing besides Titan verified equipment is allowed on the island." he offered with an apologetic smile.

She nodded and shook his hand and with a farewell started her short trek to the door at the base of the tower. There she was met by one person. It was the same person that offered her the job, he stood back straight in a set of black jeans and a light black jacket to ward off the chill of the late winter chill. Her eyes traveled to the right sleeve that flickered on the wind. Empty. The green skin that showed on his face was darker than the pictures looked and the white bandages still covered his eyes "It's nice to see you again Abby" his left hand held out in greeting.

She shook it in awe "H-Hi…um…I-It's good to be working with you!" he smiled and his bottom fang peeked through, the only tooth that was shone.

He grabbed the bag that she had been struggling with and carried it into the garage "Welcome to your new home Titan's Tower. Ask any questions you want…well, let's wait until after the tour, okay?"

He took her up the tower floor by floor until they reached the main ops room under the bandages he glanced to the door that led to the room. "There are ten different rooms for people to stay in, you can choose any of the free ones. When you're through meet me back here."

Abby beamed before walking down the hall. Gar took a moment to think about Slipshot, the twenty-one year old woman was quiet during the daylight hours when she worked as an assistant librarian in one of her city's libraries. But at night she displayed the ability to freely manipulate electricity that was free from it's creation point, a rare thing to find in nature so she devised the two guns at her side. As a hero she displayed a tenacity that rivaled his own.

Hearing her light but determined steps he pulled the bandages so that they intersected across his left eye and his right was free. She stepped in and stopped abruptly as she realized that he was staring at her. A blush covered her face as she sat down. Like the vast majority of heroes she was fit and probably a few inches shorter than his medium-on-the-edge-of-tall height, her curves didn't bring attention but once attention was given they were bound to be noticed. She was tanned with long red hair that reached her hips and a very light dusting of freckles across the bridge of her nose with light gray eyes that seemed to burn with emotions.

He gave a gentle smile "Did you have a question?"

She fidgeted with the hem of her shirt "Um…I accidentally went into your room…I didn't mean to, I was looking across the hall and backed up into it." she glanced at her shoes "I-is that why you're here alone?"

He sighed deeply. He knew what she saw and couldn't fault her logic. Beside his bed were several pictures, his parents, the Doom Patrol, the Teen Titans…Raven. He cleared his throat "Not in the way you're thinking" she stared at him with curiosity ablaze in her gray eyes. He sighed deeply at the woman only two years younger than himself "When I turned sixteen things got…messy around the tower." he seemed to deflate and Abby grew very concerned for the shape shifter. If he didn't have his job he would have been despondent.

* * *

The months before my sixteenth birthday was rough. Starfire and Robin hadn't gotten past that first kiss in Tokyo in the two years since then. They realized that they weren't in love so they decided to move on. Robin started dating Raven, they had been very close and it went well…until Robin went on one of his _"Gar gave a gesture to the door that led downstairs"_ things where he locks himself in his office. Raven very nearly went insane, first she got very bored, then worried then she tried to drag him out. They got into a major fight and realized that they weren't good for each other like that. Bee and Cyborg had fallen through on the long distance relationship, both of them are very physical in their affections so it got really hard for them not to be able to hug or anything.

My birthday was a very…low-key affair _"Abby correctly assumed this to be 'non-existent' and didn't even try to begin reconciling that with her idols"_. Jump had gotten very quiet, Robin decided that he would do better somewhere else. He went to some city near Gotham with a high crime rate and picked it up with Oracle. Cyborg and Starfire started dating… _"He tapped his chin with his only hand"_ To be honest I'm surprised we didn't see it earlier, they're very similar without stepping on each other's defining characteristics. Cy decided it would be good for Star to see the world, Raven was invited to tag along and she did, she was originally from an entirely different dimension so she never knew about the world. That was seven years ago…

* * *

Abby's eyes took on a steel glare "They left you alone?" he nodded hesitantly. The girl exploded in curses and rage.

He let her have her minute before he sighed quietly "Calm down."

She turned at him with fire in her eyes "HOW?! They left you alone to do the job of five people." she snarled before turning back "And you lost something that none of them have" she gestured at his shoulder and the bandages over his left eye.

He touched the bandages before looking up at her with something unreadable "I am very different then them" she stopped at the odd tone "Beyond the first five years of my life I've never known anything but fighting crime. I don't think I could do anything else. Each of them had lives other than this. Let them live how they can."

She narrowed her eyes "You sound resigned"

"I am. In more ways than one"

Abby snarled again before sitting down and pinching the bridge of her nose. He allowed the silence to come over them as he though back about the parting of the Titans while she dealt with the truth of why the _Titan_ _ **S**_ were now a _Titan_.

Gar broke the silence "What do you usually use as a uniform?"

She realized he was trying to break the tension "Generally jeans and a hoody, gloves, paint, a hockey mask, of course I bring my guns and stuff like that"

He shook his head "That won't do here…I'll call our uniform expert, she should be here tomorrow around noon. Why don't you go get settled in a bit and I'll call you when I've got dinner ready…sorry but it won't have any meat."

She nodded "Okay by me" she gave him a smile and left. She spent the time putting her things up and slowly coming to terms with her new job, she was doing the exact same thing she did in her old city. Except now she had the highest caliber back up she could think of. She smiled as she put her civilian clothes in the closet.

Her new roommate tapped lightly on the door "Abby, food's ready"

They enjoyed it with only light chatter and she spent the majority of the time watching him, his mannerisms, how he coped with only one arm. Their talk was kept light, things favorite foods and movies. One of the first things she noticed was that his eye and ears were always moving-picking up any thing they could. It was saddening that he didn't have anybody to watch his back after working with the Titans.

At some point before the sun fell he spoke "If you'd go grab your communicator, I want to sync it up to the network." but it turned out that after years of inactivity and the few but brutal EMPs that hit the tower over the years had done major damage to the device and with a sigh Gar shook his head "I have no idea how to fix this…guess I'll have to call my tech specialist tomorrow too"

She gave a faint smile "Well, looks like I'll be meeting a lot of your contacts tomorrow doesn't it?"

He gave a small return smile "Yeah, but right now you'll meet Titans V."

She quirked a shoulder "V?"

He nodded but stood to type something on the main computer "Are you aware that the Titan's have a rehabilitation program?" she shook her head and he continued "Jinx was the first, she used to be a member of the HIVE before Kid Flash convinced her to switch sides, after that we started slowly trying to help those who wanted out of being a villain, some got out while others took up our fight…V is the first group made up entirely of reformed villains"

She blinked rapidly "That's a brilliant idea, but what if they turn against you again?"

Gar simply answered "All of them have been though a rigorous process and vetted by me personally. They know that I trust them." there was a finality in those words that showed utter faith in these people who once fought him.

The screen opened up to a vicious looking woman with short black hair and blazing green eyes, behind her stood Red-X, Terra, Kyd Wykkyd, and Angel. The girl's face dropped it's harshness and she cracked a smile as she saluted, showing a short sleeve camo shirt and black gloves "Boss!" the others who had been sitting around a game board or something that was hidden behind her head clamored to look into the tiny screen before she shoved them away and grumbled as she poked a few buttons and the image feed jumped a few feet onto the big screen wherever they were.

They all snapped to a crisp salute before Gar returned it loosely. "Aries, you're looking well"

She nodded and lifted the right side of her mouth in a smirk "As good as can be expected Chief"

Wykkyd had his arm around Angel's waist who returned it with one hand on his chest and the other around his waist. Terra was holding hands with X who took off his mask "Hey Boss, I wanna spar again, I think I could win this time" he offered with a confident smirk.

Aries, the team leader burst out laughing "Yeah right Todd! He kicked all our asses without powers!"

The former thief's eye twitched "Yeah but we both know that I've gotten better since then"

Aries turned to him and said two words "Remember training?" everyone on that screen shuddered and X backed off. She turned back to the screen "So what's goin' on Boss man?"

He stepped back and allowed them to see Abby "Welcome the newest member of the Titans, this is Slipshot, she'll be working with me" introductions were quickly made before they had to cut the feed with Aries citing it was getting near midnight where they were.

Abby took the moment to ask her new coworker "What do you usually do about this time?"

He shrugged as he sat back down on the couch "If there's not a call I'll generally watch a movie or read a book."

She could feel a small bit of sadness fall over him, it must have been something he did with the others she realized before she smiled "Maybe we could watch a movie"

"What did you have in mind?"

She shrugged "What are some of your favorites?"

"Amistad, Mel Brooks, Monty Python…" he stopped at her blank looks "You have no idea what any of those are do you?"

"Nope, not a one-"

"Nay, nay, nay" he chuckled "Sorry, reference…for now let's just watch Amistad, you actually need your brain working for that movie"

* * *

The next morning started off oddly for Abby with a icy cold shower. She needed it to rid herself of her lingering dreams, not that they were unwanted, she didn't want to face the one armed man and blush at every movement he made. Glancing at her clock she let out a groan, she was still on her old time zone so she was two hours ahead physically. So she woke up bright and early at 6:45. So, doing what any semi-responsible hero would do she got ready and walked into the ops room.

She was a bit surprised when Beast Boy was at the computer talking to the Man of Steel. Superman looked worried "I'm sorry to call you so early Gar" the reporter looked sincere but there was something else on his mind, that much was clear.

The one armed man waved it away "Anything for a friend. Now, what's the matter?"

Superman nodded to his wife as she passed behind him "It's my cousin…Kara, Supergirl as you would know her is…new to Earth and" he ran a hand over his well defined chin "needs to learn that we aren't superior and teamwork. I figured you were the best person for that"

Something passed between the two, some hidden message in Gar's eyes that Abby couldn't see from behind him "Why me?"

It took a moment for the Man of Steel to think and in the end he didn't even answer. Lois did. She peeked her head in "Because Even Mento admits that you **are** the leader of the Titans, if you can get that old dog to say so then it is and we all know what you've done with your rehab program….by the way good morning" she grinned.

Gar grinned back "You too, send her over tomorrow…she does have an official uniform right?"

Superman nodded before asking "Why does she need a uniform?"

Waving in the direction of Slipshot he told them "Suzy's coming over today"

"Ah, well she does have one. Thanks Gar"

"Don't worry about it." then the line went dead and Gar turned to face her "Sleep well?"

She nodded before asking "Suzy?"

He took a three legged step, a cane she didn't see early "Edna Mode made hero uniforms a profession back in the mid 50's, she made them for everybody, Doom Patrol, Justice League, the Incredibles-you name it and very few people got into it, Suzy being one of them, the two of them got married after Edna came out of retirement and made the Incredible's suits."

"Ah…that makes sense I guess." she tried not to stare at the cane, she really did.

But he knew. Both eyes covered, back to her and he still knew, he held it up "Something I tend to use in the mornings when I get up earlier than I'd like to and my knee acts up" he said with a smile as he leaned the straight length of wood against the cabinet next to the cook top.

A buzzing from the back of his waist caught her attention, she never noticed the communicator on his jeans, it sat behind his hip drawing her eyes to 'unsafe' territory. A high-pitch whining voice comes from the communicator and he held it to his ear before saying something she didn't catch trying to half way pull her eyes from the seat of his jeans. He flicked his comm closed and sighed "Would you care for some meat with breakfast?"

She managed to jerk her eyes away at the last moment before he turned around and nod quietly "Sounds nice…but why?"

"Edna loves meat like Cy does…"

"I thought Suzy was coming?"

He pinched the bridge of his nose "Both of them are"

* * *

Two very short women with very big personalities marched into the room and Gar immediately dropped down to hug both of them "Edna, Suzy, it's so nice to see both of you" he greeted with a smile.

They return the gesture before they turned to stare at Abby, the only difference that their target could see between the two of them was their dress, glasses and hair color, Edna wore a dark dress with leggings while her partner wore jeans and a blue long sleeved button up with a dark purple pattern around the cuffs, the former wore glasses while the latter didn't exposing brilliant green eyes and blond hair. Edna reminded her of a wolf while Suzy's eyes were closer her of her mom shopping for a piece of meat.

She wasn't sure which one bothered her more.

Edna turned her attention to the hero's boss and spoke with her funny little accent "Garfield, why don't you cook breakfast" she held up a bag no doubt laden with animal flesh for emphasis "while we talk to your trainee"

He merely shook his head with a smile "More like interrogate…why don't you do it at the table?" there was an unspoken _so I can step in_ that caused all the women in the room to agree hesitantly. Both of the designers had made more than one hero question themselves with the battering of questions they could fire.

Slipshot was irked that he didn't disagree with the 'trainee' but then the thought came. She was. The Titan's were the single biggest hero organization in the world and she was being offered a post. But it never said where. There was a rumor floating around that several of the leaders of Titan groups was originally brought in to help with Jump City but couldn't cut it.

The duo sat on one side of the eight seater rectangular table that was butted up against the wall to really only hold seven. Abby slid onto the other with a glace at Gar who's ear twitched almost in response. Edna stared at her wife for a moment "Measurements?"

Abby stared at the duo hesitantly "Um…"

The brunette waved a hand at the hero without looking "I wasn't asking if you knew them…and you don't but who wants to do it"

Suzy shrugged and hopped off her chair "Come this way Sweetling. Gar we're using her room. Don't come in"

"Got it" was the only response and Abby felt a bit of fear tremble through her stomach at the pages of measurements. Pages, and pages, and pages…

She came out feeling slightly less violated than she thought she'd be. Slightly.

They returned to the table where the two designers conferred for a moment before large plates were set before everyone but Gar. His plate was utterly gigantic and closer to a serving platter than a normal plate. The sausage was fried to perfection with waffles, oat meal, fruit, hash and coffee. His plate lacked the sausage but had quite a few pills beside it. Everyone stared at him with shock written on their faces. With a chuckled that they couldn't tell didn't light his covered eye he answered "My body's basal metabolism is roughly four times higher than a normal athlete, add a combat situation and my body burns upwards of dozens times the calories of any other person."

Edna and Suzy had been around heroes for a long time so oddities were something they were used to. Abby…not so much. She stared for a moment longer before realizing that her own need for nearly eight times the normal dose of iron and salt wasn't that weird.

As Gar took the dishes and the drinks were still being nursed the two decided it was time for questions. Machine guns would be envious at the speed that the two ladies fired out questions.

Edna: "Is there a color you prefer?"

Abby: "I-I like blue and yellow"

Suzy: "Masks?"

Edna: "Full? Half? Eyes? None?"

Abby: "Um, c-can I see examples?"

This slowed them down and Edna grabed a pencil and a blank paper before quickly showing her four types of masks, the first is like Robin's, eyes only, the second only covers her mouth and the third everything but. The fourth was like the one picture she saw of Red-X. she took a moment before looking them over "Can we do something like this?" she says pointing to the mouth cover.

It was noted and the questions came again starting with Edna "Clothes- baggy, tight or normal?"

"N-normal" she hated how these questions were constantly knocking her around.

Suzy started to ask questions about her likes and dislikes, favorite superhero…which was really weird with it being Beast Boy. Thankfully he was talking into his communicator and didn't hear that. How often does she work out, everyday. Does she like shiny things, not all that much. How much do you want to stand out, rather not. Everything stoped when the issue of capes came up. Suzy liked the classic look of flowing cloth behind a person while Edna hated it. Listening to the two bicker was hilarious. They were both cut from the same bull-headed cloth.

They stopped when Gar offers up one piece of thought "It's funny, the only person who both of you like the cape that Edna hates and the leotards Suzy despises on is Raven." they mumbled something intelligible before gathering their things.

They ended the visit with "We'll send over some designs tomorrow"

The door had only been shut maybe a grand total of four seconds before Abby let out her pent up breath "Are they always that intense?"

He boss quietly put the plates in the dishwasher "A very long time ago they weren't. Before we split up they were a lot more laid back, don't get me wrong, they were just as serious but more relaxed. Their method of dealing with things is to throw themselves into their work"

"They haven't gotten over the Titan's break up?"

Gar sat down, his posture radiated 'relaxed' one leg rested on the cushion while his foot was covered by his other leg, his elbow was on the chair arm and his jaw lightly resting on his knuckles "They never got a chance to. After our break up heroes began dying left and right, up until I started pushing the rehab program we've been loosing more heroes per year than gaining."

Slipshot gaped at the news. "H-How?" she whispered.

He stood up "It's best if you don't know. The problem is gone" glancing at the clock though the bandages he continued "Better suit up, Supergirl should be here soon. Just go ahead and meet me on the roof" and he turned and went to his room. A thrill ran through her though, finally she would see his suit! It was childish but she couldn't help the smile.

She quickly changed and made her way up, as a general rule she learned how to change quickly and didn't use a lot of make up, but Gar was one of the people who could change the fastest in the world. Part of her wanted to see him in all spandex, a vast majority in fact, but she managed to put that part in the back of her mind so that when she opened the door she was partially surprised. He wore a short sleeved bone white spandex shirt that clung to him tenaciously, his pure black pants were looser and held up by a belt of the same color with a silver buckle in the signature double circle T and black boots with metal in the shape of a human hand palm down with fingers spread into talons across the top and toe. His bandages were still present and she had to fight back a blush as she looked up to meet his face. His hair was starting to brush his eyebrows and the one fang that was perpetually out looked lethally sharp. Across his wrist was wrapped a rosary with, not only a cross, but a Star of David, the Islamic crescent moon and two more symbols she didn't recognize.

This is what Kara Zor-El saw as she hovered into view. She dismissed both of them, the only reason she was even here was because of Clark's insistence. Slipshot, on the other hand, was amazed, this was the cousin of Superman and one hell of a beauty, her long lean legs were caressed by red boots and her cousin's colors were mapping her body perfectly and the cape at her back overlapped at her neck just enough to draw the eye.

Gar could read her body language and smell the hormones in her body. Supergirl was not happy. He had heard the reasons but he stepped forward and greeted "Kara Zor-El, it is a pleasure to meet you, my name is-"

She dropped to the roof and cut him off "Inconsequential. I'm only here because Clark kept hounding me, said if I proved I was good enough for you he'd let me off."

Abby was taken back, she hadn't known of the foul temper and stepped forward "Gar's only trying to help!"

Kara pinned the human with a glare "Gar? What type of hero name is 'Gar'? Sounds like a normal one"

"Because it is my real name" Kara turned back to the green man who shrugged "Beast Boy wasn't a good match considering I haven't been a boy for a long time and I don't see an urgency for a new one, not that any of them sound good but…"

Kara sighed "Well, let's get to proving that I'm not an idiot and I can shake hands with a human and not crush their hands"

Garfield put on a blank mask "I have a better idea. Both of you come with me" and he started to walk into the Tower. He knew Kara's type, bitter at loss, stubbornly against change, powerful enough to oppose it in most cases. This was not the type of person he needed. Beneath even Supergirl's hearing he growled "Thanks Clark. You knew I wouldn't be able to let this slide"

They stopped in the training room, a large area that took up two stories of the building as almost one room, the exemptions were a control room where cameras, video and holograms could be set up and a short hallway that extended from the elevator and stairwell to the two doors by which to enter the control room or the training room.

Supergirl looked around "Okay, we're here. What do you want?"

His one hand undid the rosary and wrapped it in his belt loop "I want to spar"

Kara gave a short bark of laughter "If we sparred all that would be left is a splatter on the ground"

Gar didn't change his tone but it became an undeniable order "Both of you are to come at me like you're trying to kill me, otherwise I cannot truly assess your skill. For a bonus I won't use my powers and as for me being a splatter…I'll consider that a passing mark"

Kara needed no other prompting and this mere _human_ had the gall to think he could fight _her_? She charged across the room at near supersonic speeds only to be met with his foot to her solar plexus. She stopped dead in her charge and fell to the ground vomiting and clutching her abdomen.

Abby stared as Supergirl continued coughing and puking before they both looked at Gar and felt the vast shadow of experience and power behind his unmoving form fall over them "If you take me as just another 'mere human' you are gravely mistaken, I have not only fought in this world but thrived against all odds including the apocalypse brought about by an interdimensional demon and another world ending event brought about by a sentient shard of the time-space continuum. Now, let's try this again"

The 'test' became a brutal showing of the difference in power, each move was countered before he could even take the brunt of the attack, he dodged Slipshot's electrical bullets and Supergirl's heat vision at range, if they tried close quarters he ruthlessly put them on the ground and if they tried to disengage he rushed them.

Twenty minutes later both girls were done. Both were exhausted, there were probably bones out of joints and bruises already forming. They were laying on their backs as he sat in the only chair in the room, a folding piece of plastic that was now witness to his pose, his elbow on his knee and his chin resting in his palm.

The emotions running through the three were very different. Slipshot could now appreciate his record, he was brutal and efficient in ways that she never thought about but he was also one of the nicest people in an odd dichotomy.

Supergirl was enraged at her loss, there was no way a mere human could beat her! But she was also, reluctantly, awed. He was _a mere human_ but he put her down so many times she couldn't really fight her way up again. He displayed raw power, intuition, experience, flexibility, speed and cunning. As a fighter she couldn't help by admire what he could do even with the loss of his arm. She was humbled.

Gar was partially hopeful, partially disappointed. Both girls were 'good' but that wouldn't be enough. Both displayed a talent for their own styles of fighting that he could never teach them, he just needed to get them to their potential and that was something he learned how to do many years ago. "Kara, you're strong, resilient…but you rush in headlong and depend on your natural abilities. While this works really well on low level criminals if you come across somebody who's stronger than you or deadlier…you won't be coming back. Abigail, you're the exact opposite, after you engage you hesitate and think things through, in reality you won't have that time to think before something happens." he got up off the chair and helped Supergirl up before moving to Slipshot.

Kara rubbed the back of her neck "Um…guess I was wrong" she mumbled.

Gar offered her an apologetic smile "To be honest I have been doing this most of my life. If Clark sent you here he knew this was going to happen"

She curled a lip back in a snarl "I'll just have to pay him back later" she flinched as she moved "…after I heal up"

Abby rolled her shoulders "Feels like I got hit by a truck, not a fist"

Gar sighed "That's not just my experience. Several years ago the Justice League started to worry about our declining numbers and started a program with the universe's greatest minds in an effort to create a way for the average hero to become tougher, more efficient, hardier-that sort of thing. I was in a…bad place emotionally and volunteered before they were into the safety test of it" he clenched his fist and grit is teeth in a moment of something neither girl could fathom "I gained…many things from it, one of the side effects is that I can control my muscle density, right now- my new basal, is nearly four times the average Tamaranean's"

Kara gasped and Abby blinked several times "So right now you could lift what? Without changing it or any of these 'other powers' you got"

He thought for a moment "I don't know. Starfire could…can pick up a fully loaded semi and trailer, on a good day with one hand. But the full limits of muscle density to weight isn't really something we can work at in this line of business"

A small bell dinged cheerily somewhere and the trio made their way to the only ground floor door quickly, but not rushing. Mikron O'Jeneus was at the door. Gizmo at another time. The shorter man did a secret handshake with Gar before they hugged "It's nice to see you still kickin' Gar" came the nasally voice.

The hero smiled before turning to the girls "Slipshot, Supergirl…Abigail Westlin, Kara Zor-El meet Mikron O'Jeneus, formerly the villain Gizmo"

Abby shook hands with the man and greeted him professionally but Kara hadn't been told about the rehabilitation program "Former villain? How in the world can you trust him?" it wasn't screamed it was just an honest question.

The short man stood up straighter "Hey! I'll have you know I was in the first official rehab class!"

Abby gave her friend a short summary before Kara shrugged "Whatever, doesn't mean much to me either way"

Gar cut in before the argumentative man could get started "Mik I need you to reboot all the communicators in the Common room, apparently they don't work and I couldn't sync them to the mainframe…" the red alert light came on with a siren "…aaaaand apparently I'm needed else where" he turned to the two girls "neither of you are in a condition to fight."

They tried to argue but he pulled the bandages to reveal his eye and glared them into silence. In a flash all that was in his place was a fully formed green black mamba that leapt into a vent before disappearing in a flash, moments later a deafening shriek tore the air, the girls rushed to the door to see a green bird cut the air in twain once again before flying over the city.

Abby stared for a moment "I would never have though things would turn out like this…"

Mik rapped on a wall "Well come on you two, I need to teach you how to use the comms." he took off the black jacket and finally both girls took a minute to study him, black tennis shoes and jeans with a gray collared shirt with an odd logo on the breast pocket two 'G's set back to back made into gears.

After a moment Slipshot asked "You work at Gizmo Gadget?" this wasn't as much of a shock as it could have been, Gizmo Gadget was the worlds largest tech company that suddenly appeared six years ago. They came up with new tech almost every month.

He gave a wry laugh "Me and Gar _built_ GG" Kara gave a blank look but the other wasn't buying it "Look, after I got through rehab there was no way I was going back to being a villain and I sure as shit couldn't be in the hero biz, too many grudges ya' know? So Gar tells me that he needs a tech specialist- don't get me wrong he's good with technology…well, decent but he's by no means great. He signed me on but it wasn't a full time thing so I needed a real job…" the elevator dinged but Mik shook his head with a downcast face "Nobody would take me. Even though I went through rehab I couldn't find a job nobody trusted me."

Kara was exceptionally blunt "You did try to rob them of their life savings…multiple times if those news articles I saw were right"

As they made their way to the computer that sat in the middle of the windows he turned to face her "This wasn't-and isn't about me. It's about how they didn't trust _Gar's_ decision about it."

Kara was never known for her tact "So how'd you get the money?"

With a quick glance the inventor knelt by the box of comms and pulled one out as he sat on the sofa "I'll tell you this because he isn't here." both girls were on edge "When Gar turned eighteen he received a inheritance of roughly four million dollars…well, insurance, inheritance and stocks/ bonds that sort of thing. But he doesn't use much money at all and there was no way he could donate it all to charity. Actually there's a JL code stating that heroes should keep a substantial amount of money stashed away in case they take an injury…a lot of heroes couldn't get back in those years" he said solemnly "And since Gar is one of the few full time heroes they deemed that he could only use the money for personal or business reasons. He saw how the people in this city wouldn't give me a shot…GG is owned 50-50 between the two of us, he runs the money and I do the tech, he contracts out the marketing to a third party that he works with closely. Same with my friend Baran…Baran Flinders, Mammoth, he couldn't get a job either and during rehab he showed that his defensive work was better than almost everybody else. If we had known that before we started things would have gone very differently…anyways, Gar did the same thing 50-50 with Baran and Mammoth Security" Mammoth Security was the top of the private protection service.

The tech expert opened one of the communicators with a odd looking contraption he pulled out of a small back that was stashed in his breast pocket "At the moment he's estimated to be worth…" he pulled out his phone and tapped the screen a few times before blinking and just showing them the phone. On the screen was the name Garfield Logan and a pie chart showing how his public investments were split but across the top were two numbers, one a ranking amongst the world's wealthiest, a very respectable 5th and the amount of money he was worth. It was a mind boggling amount.

* * *

The green hawk winged it's way over the city far faster than any natural bird. If he were a human on his face would be a grimace. Grim remembrance with a limitless rage simmering underneath. He was alone. No matter who was in the tower he was alone. Betrayal was a constant tattoo beating with his heart. Reminding him that nobody would trust a monster.

The four robbers watched him land in their midst with little fear. They shredded the air around him with lead but he walked through unscathed and fear started to grow in them. Their leader stepped forward with a grenade "I-If you come any closer I'll use it! I swear to God I'll do it!"

"I don't care"

"What?"

"I said I don't care. I look after the city. Your death means nothing to me and if you know anything about the past seven years you'd know that I've seen my fare share of death."

Their leader gave a harsh choking laugh "If you pop this thing you'll be the one who dies!"

Gar sighed with a shake of his head "Do you really think in my eighteen years of doing this I haven't come across a grenade before?" then his voice took on a sad tone "I've lost many friends to the creations of war."

The robber pulled the pin and threw the device. Gar allowed the device to fall at his feet. Slowly he bent down and picked it up. His fist tightened and before the count went off he crushed the device in his hand. The shards trickled down like rain before he attacked.

* * *

Kara watched silently as Gar returned without a word. He stepped to the console and removed his belt buckle before taking the face and putting it on top of his communicator and pressing the ensemble into a slot in the main computer. A quiet beep was the only sound before he retreated to his room.

Mik didn't look up from his work and Abby watched with Kara. Supergirl asked "What was that?"

Gizmo set his tools down "Gar hates fighting alone. It brings up bad memories for him" walking to the kitchen he grabbed a pan and some water before dropping the fixed comm in and checking for bubbles.

Kara watched the tech specialist wander around gathering a few things before sitting down "You know him very well"

He nodded "Life hasn't been good to him since the others left"

Abby spoke quietly "A lot of the animals on earth are social…being alone must be a thousand times worse for him"

It took several hours for the rest of the communicators to be fixed and before he could even get up from his spot the door opened and Gar stepped out. Mik stretched his back "Well, I'm done."

"Going to go check on Baran?"

"Yeah, he's still healing after getting shot in the leg, they got him limping around now"

"That's good. Be safe"

The short man turned around and lifted a hand in farewell before hitting the button to take him to the ground floor.

Gar motioned the two others to sit at the table and he joined them with a paper in his hand "Tomorrow I want to start your training."

Kara blinked "You do realize right now I could lift more than you…what _practical_ use does training have?"

Without looking up he replied "Superman can barely cut my training. I want you to exceed me. Training will start at seven"

The rest of the night passed quietly with dinner and idle chatter before they went to sleep.

The morning came with a set of instructions: Eat one banana and then we'll head to the city. There they finally found out their training regime. In all it's brutality.

He put his one hand behind his back as he stared at them with covered eyes "First rule: we are a team, if one falls the other will pick her up and carry her until you collapse then I'll pick you up until I collapse. Second rule: never leave a comrade behind."

Abby nodded "Okay, but what are we going to do?"

"We'll start light today and run eight times around the city."

Kara and Abby started nodding before stopping "Wait…what?"

He nodded and started jogging before turning back "Running only, no flying." they shrugged and took off after him. In truly admirable form Abby collapsed only after running twice around the city. Her wheezing was painful against her lungs and she couldn't even pick herself up.

Kara stopped before cradling the girl in her arms and running again. Abby stared up at Kara's face for a moment "T-Thanks"

Supergirl was sweating but she still nodded down at her teammate "No problem"

Abby wondered if her cheeks were as red as they felt.

The Kryptonian felt her own endurance start to fail by lap six. Abby couldn't believe it when Kara's knee it the ground "S-sorry…I can fly it but running is tiring…" the cousin of Superman started to fall but never made it.

Gar knelt and caught her with his only arm "You did very well for your first time!" he gave them a bright smile before he picked them up, Kara was essentially sitting on his forearm with his bicep acting as her backrest while she leaned into his chest and Abby was still being held by Kara. Like that he ran the last two laps.

Gar slowly sat them on the ground "Well good thing I wasn't planning on any more physical exercise today"

Abby growled and looked up at him "Give me two weeks and I'll run the entire thing" after a few more panting breaths she had to ask "What's your normal work out?"

Sitting beside them he took a sip of water before handing them the bottle "Usually I do ten laps before I do cardio and weights then some mental exercises."

Kara blinked before taking a deep swig of the lukewarm water and trying no to vomit "How do you have the energy?"

He gave a dry chuckle "It took me years to build up. I started with every day I would run as far as I could in one hour, then lift as much as I could…I started very slow and built my way up."

Abby hissed as she sat up "How long did it take you to get to where you are now?"

"Ten laps, cardio and weights took me two years and even then I changed the amounts, now I run ten faster, I do faster cardio for the same amount of time and lift more reps" he rolled his shoulders "I made this to completely drain a person and tear down the maximum amount of muscle before it could start to rebuild"

A rumble started and Abby looked around to see it was actually Kara trying to hold in a laugh, one that promptly burst out and had the sharpshooter's face doused in red "You're crazy you know that?"

Gar gave them a small chuckle, the first real positive emotion since either of them from him, excluding the smile earlier "Crazy from the cousin of Clark I can take"

A gurgle entered the air and the laughing trio looked at each other before laughing even harder "I take it you're ready for breakfast?" smirked the alien.

Abby blushed but nodded as Gar picked them up and took them back via the bridge.

* * *

In two weeks small miracles happened. Abby and Kara had caught up to the level of the workout Gar had designated, eight laps, half hour of slow cardio, another half of light weights and two puzzles. Each of the puzzles took hours and were designed by people who had studies the problem solving capabilities and general knowledge of each victim before hand.

The other miracle was Slipshot's uniform was designed and delivered, her pants were a night sky blue that matched her lightweight boots her shirt was storm cloud grey spandex with lightning bolts horizontally across her arms and one from each shoulder that crossed in the center of her chest, her mask was the same gray and covered her nose and mouth with only two bolts, one from each eye straight down to her collar.

They ignored her on the tightness of the shirt but as she looked over their materials sheet she couldn't help but smile. There was nothing better for her to wear.

Gar smiled when she stepped out and offered "Let's see how well it moves"

They did their usual work out and she was delighted at how well it breathed. But something weighed on her and after their cool down Gar pulled her aside "Is something wrong?"

Abby couldn't lie to him, she knew it- he was the best lie detector ever. She pulled down her mask and rubbed the back of her neck "Um…these past few weeks opened my eyes a lot…" she trailed off and at her seriousness Gar pulled the bandages free of his eye "H-How do you take, um, I mean…" she took a deep breath "Do you think heroes should date other heroes on their team?"

Gar went silent for a moment and she feared she stepped over her bounds "I…I believe it is far easier for a hero to date another hero…and being on the same team does deepen the bonds…" he ran a hand over his face "This isn't an easy decision. I've seen the down side of this time and time again. Just don't let it endanger you, her or either of your happiness"

She let out a squeal that startled Kara into running into the commons screaming "What happened?!"

Abby blushed a bright red and smiled at the other girl "S-sorry! I got really excited"

Kara crossed her arms and shook her head but there was a small smile on her face "What?"

Slipshot stopped dead in her tracks, behind her back she gripped her hands and her face turned even redder "Um…c-can I ask you on a date?"

Gar took the moment to leave. This wasn't his conversation. There was another though that he did need to have "Hey Mik, it's me. You know that soundproofing you wanted to install? Looks like I'll have to ask you to put it in"

Within an hour the diminutive genius had a team filling the walls with a foam while he went over the some of the information with Abby and Kara, Gar had already heard and was dealing with a call. The girls were getting used to the huge strain on their body and occasionally they would falter and Gar couldn't endanger them like that.

The short man dug through his bag before pulling out a cylinder of light blue foam before handing it to Abby "What is this?" she said as she turned the core over and studied it.

"It's an accidental discovery, a soundproofing foam about ten thousand times better than any other. Gar has to turn his hearing to medium to hear through it"

Kara and Abby gave incredulous looks before shaking their heads in wonder. Kara gave it a light squeeze "It seems to do more than just stop sound…"

He gave them a wickedly intelligent smirk "Oh, it does a lot more than that! It's also insulates against heat and electricity as well as sets up harder than concrete or steel…it's a reinforcement on top of everything and it's chemically inert. Right now we've sent in the copyright and by next week we'll be able to put this in every home in America!"

Abby looked at the sample again "No cancer from exposure? No nothing?"

Gizmo gave a wide smile "I'm very cautious about making new products like this but it's actually a great absorber of carcinogens so in high toxicity areas it probably needs to be replaced once every fifty years or so" his smile changed into a mischievous one "So you two are dating now?"

Both Abby and Kara blushed but the latter grabbed her girlfriend's hand "Yeah, so what?" she shouted in challenge.

He giggled "Nothing, just a good thing you found someone you like and who likes you back"

* * *

Gar stood in front of the villains. They were different then the type he usually got around here, they only wanted to cause mayhem and destroy what they could. As their leader fell to his knees he started laughing "We will win!"

"In case you haven't noticed you're on your knees, beaten and-"

"Our boss, the Twelve will spill your blood all over this city!"

"Twelve?"

The crook gave a loose toothed smile "There were Ten before"

The air suddenly turned fatal. "They've gathered again? Twelve?"

"And you are the first they wish dead!" he started to roar in laughter.

Gar's voice was far calmer than previously "Well, I know _you_ won't see it" two holes suddenly appeared in the herald's torso, a small one through the heart and the other the size of a softball in the middle of his stomach.

His communicator rang once before the chief of police answered "Gar? What's going on?"

"I'm enacting protocol 2"

"U-Understood sir!"

The line went dead and the bloody hero opted to walk back. Glancing once more at the mess he created he could only sigh and rub his head "Fuck".

His arrival came just after Mik and his team left. Kara and Abby rushed over to his bloody form as he sat on the sofa and cradled his forehead "Call Edna. I need her and Suzy here tonight."

A small trill of excitement went through both the girls, a new suit came with a new name "You finally decided to go with 'Alpha' huh?" Kara smirked with a nod "I knew my suggestion was amazing"

Abby smiled but shook her head "Naw, he's going with 'Apex'! Just like I told you he would!"

"In Greece for centuries there was a sect that worshiped the death of the Gods. Typhon was their God and Echidna their Goddess, the Sphinx, the Nemean Lion, Cerberus…all the monsters of Greek myth were his children and he the original thus his name The Father of all Monsters. He and Echidna together nearly destroyed all the gods and only luck saved them." he went silent and the others waited for his next words "When I was fighting the… serum I was called to help them. I was having trouble with my powers and they believed me to be their God given mortal form from his prison beneath Mount Etna. I will take that name. Typhon. Father of all Monsters. The Greatest Enemy. The One the Olympians Feared."

* * *

Oracle waited for her boyfriend to come through the doors, in her hand was a letter. Far different than anything else she had ever held it had the power to compel anyone on earth to obey.

* * *

In seven years many things had changed for the trio of heroes, Victor Stone now looked completely human…as he wished, but his battle armor would come out at a command, Starfire and Raven had both developed their powers as well as growing physically. At the moment they were passing through the mountainous region of China, the small town they were currently in was quaint and unassuming.

So much so that their visitor was completely shocking. In the middle of the room was Superman. Clark Kent nodded to them "Ah, Cyborg, Starfire, Raven. It's nice to see you again."

Starfire stepped forward with a squeal "Friend Superman! It has been far too long!"

He returned her hug before he turned to shake hands with Cyborg and Raven, the only true human of the group asked "So…no offence but what are you doing here?"

Clark's smile dropped quickly "The Justice League has exactly one consultant. One. That being said I hope you understand how important he is."

Raven put in "You need someone to protect him. Why don't you just have him live at the Watchtower?"

"We've tried. Several times, but his obligations keep him where he is."

The alien couldn't keep her feet on her ground "What is it you require of us?"

The Man of Steel's eyes turned very hard "There's a group that's trying very hard to kill him. They're a big enough group that they're trying the hands of every group that would go to help. He could probably survive on his own but he's far to important."

Raven looked at the couple beside her who nodded, she mirrored the gesture and Superman smiled brightly before giving them a slip of paper for a private jet waiting at a nearby air strip.

* * *

As the plane started to climb Cyborg sat on the couch with one arm around Starfire who curled herself at his side. Raven was seated opposite them in a recliner with a large book in her lap but there was a frown set on her delicate features, something that didn't escape Cyborg's notice "Rae, what's the matter?"

Sighing she closed the large tome and glanced at the already sleeping Star "It's just we agreed with so little information" and then she fell into a contemplative silence.

Not trusting the dark woman to keep her feelings from descending Cy continued "Wow, we'll be going back to the States after six years…have you missed BB?" he knew better than to ask about the other member of their former team.

She shook her head "No, though I do miss occasionally talking with other heroes"

"Wow, I guess you really did hate him…"

"Hmm?" Raven watched as her friend's face fell and momentarily cursed herself for the blunder "No, I don't _hate_ Beast Boy per say, but his actions did annoy me. As a teammate he was good but he was far too…'powerful' a source of emotions for me to be around."

Cy didn't answer but lapsed into silence as the Justice League jet soared across the sky. "I don't think he'd be a hero after all this time…"

Violet eyes looked above the book "True, he probably went to Steel City and let another team take the Tower"

"Yeah, sounds like him…" and they thought it to be true.

* * *

As the trio landed they were met by two people they were not expecting. Cyborg was in his armored mode and he greeted professionally "Nightwing, Oracle"

The masked man greeted him back and said a simple hello to the women, both of whom returned it coolly. Oracle's greeting was warm, in contrast, but went without return. She couldn't blame them, she had never had a relationship with any of the others and she was just another reason that Nightwing left so easily.

Just outside the hanger were two women who stepped forward, their glares continued to cut into the former Titans. The first stepped forward "My name is Slipshot, Supergirl and I are going to take you to the…consultant."

Starfire stepped forward to exchange names but the hostility oozing out of the duo stopped her and forced them to quietly get into the van, the only one they treated with any warmth was Oracle whom Kara gently lifted onto the seat as Abby took the wheelchair to the trunk, Supergirl apologized "I didn't know you were coming so we couldn't prep another car"

The drive was tense and the elevator ride from the garage to the common room silent. As the doors opened the falling sun cloaked the figure standing in front of the couch and all they could see was the screen covered with several feeds. Slipshot and Supergirl took their place by the figure only after Supergirl pointed harshly at their feet and mouthed the words "Don't. Move."

The man started with "Typhon, Titan Commander reporting"

The first feed was Superman who watched with interest before noting "Superman, as witness."

Batman was on another and he repeated the phrase.

The entire Doom Patrol claimed another screen with their own added.

Bumble Bee was on another flanked by Speedy, Jinx and Kid Flash. "Titans East reporting" was all she said before another group started.

"Titans A reporting" came from Argent with, Hot Spot, Ravager and Jericho beside her.

Pantha and Wildebeest were flanked by two unknown members as the masked woman answered with "Titans Central reporting."

Ares stood by with her team and repeated the phrase one final time before she and the rest of those on the screens relaxed from a salute "What's up bossman?"

His answers were still the same commanding tone "The Terrible Ten are back…but renamed the Twelve. I don't know who all is returning and who is new"

The two singular witnesses knew but panic opened up between the others until Typhon made a slashing motion with one hand "Enough" it was a calm quiet command that was instantaneously heeded "This is a Alpha-Prime Situation"

The former Titans matched all their current partners in drawing in a breath, Ares shuddered "W-What's this meeting about then Boss?"

"I will do everything in my power to stop these Twelve. But should I die I give command of the Titan Network to Bumble Bee"

There was silence as the young woman took in the information before she opened and closed her mouth several times. She could only nod. Speedy put a hand on her shoulder "I think she accepts" she nodded again.

"Then this meeting is concluded. It is and was an honor serving with you" and each of the groups gave it's phrase again before they all shut off.

Typhon turned around. None of the former titans could believe their eyes, it was Raven who could speak first, the most detached from the green man, the others were distraught at his wounds. "Beast Boy?"

"I gave that name up when you left me here to die" he growled.


	2. Chapter 2

Kara had seen this coming. The rage, the hate, the betrayal sat too close to the surface. Not that she blamed him. When she awoke on this little blue ball she was in a rage at life, but while hers was broad his was narrow, hers without reason, his _forged_ from it. The night before she had told Abby to just let things flow, it was something neither of them could stop, they simply hadn't existed at the time for the shape shifter.

Abby had seen this coming. The rage, the hate, the betrayal was too deep inside him. Not that she blamed him. She never had the losses he had, her parents were still here, his were taken from him, her mentor kind, his nearly got him killed enumerable times, she found love, his always tore him to shreds. The night before she told Kara that they would need to step in at some point, it was something that they needed to stop, they were the only other two people he saw as a person.

Both of them now realized something in the infinite space between times. They were both right. And yet so wrong.

Like a marionette rage kept him moving, like a building the hate was his core. Like glass if he shattered he would cause hell. And never be able to be put back together again.

Typhon was the father of all monsters for a reason. Yet, what was that reason?

* * *

Raven stared at this new man before her, the first thing she noticed was how big he was. A few inches taller than Cyborg with a thin but strong body-whip like and filled with aggression. The second and third thing happened in quick succession as her eyes scanned him up and down, his eye, arm, the exposed scars on the arm that _was_ there.

And his bare feet.

Such an odd thing to notice. A hero couldn't afford to go bare footed, they stepped on too many things. But his were, and they were scarred from the lifestyle he led, and across each toe was a single nail, perfectly healthy and manicured. But at the same time not human. The shape was more claw-like and each one was a shade darker than his body, and, if one chose to ask, deathly sharp. They had stepped on too many people to be clean, over too many bodies both friend and otherwise.

" _A man's footsteps can tell you everything about him. Are they deep? He's burdened. Are they uneven? He is unfocused. Are they staggered? He is falling." Azar stopped for a moment as she looked at Raven "But most importantly is how they end. Did he fall? Do they just stop?"_

" _What do they mean?" asked the student._

 _Her teacher just looked at her sadly "If you meet a man who can tell you he's seen too much"_

He had a new uniform. It made him look like honored royalty. Raven knew dark. She knew black like she knew the violet that was her hair or her eyes. But this was beyond that. This was closer to the black her father once showed her. The black he traced over Rage when he tried to invade her mind. It wasn't black. It was void. It covered his legs like the night sky did the city, if one didn't know where to look it went on forever. The shirt he wore was a white not ever seen by human eyes before, so bright it burned and cut across with three angled slashes in one direction and three more on top, jagged claws in blood red forming a T. It actually sickened her to look at it, every moment looked like blood would start it's inevitable gravity fueled drip down his body. Glancing at his stomach she couldn't see the end of the red as the shirt dove beneath the void, in her mind it continued through him. Across his shoulders was a jacket, almost a cape, the ash grey covered his back and a thin sliver of his chest all the while looking like the uncut bolt of air of his namesake's rage, the collar came up to his mid neck, the neck that held his head high and made him look more like a king than a hero. His arm was uncovered by cloth and ended with a single glove the same ash gray. This wasn't what made her pause though. It was the 'x' across his face. The white bandages were marked by curves. A bull's-eye. Dead center of his head.

Raven watched as he growled "I gave up that name when you left me here to die" the part of her that loved her friends reached out to touch his mind.

Nightwing's mind was a flat wall, almost too perfect with an occasional crack that if one knew what to do they could slip through. Oracle's was the same, training from the same man molded them. Cyborg's was open to all, but behind it was a giant club ready at every moment to smash into any invader. Starfire's was a kaleidoscope that made her nauseous to stare at for too long. Supergirl's was very similar but the bright colors and patters were muted but more twisted together so you couldn't tell where thoughts and memories intersected. Slipshot was blessed by her power, her mind was too active to grasp and far too energized to read for more than a moment without damage. No telepath could ever see their own mind. But her old partner? No, he wasn't that…comrade? No, that implied mutual respect in equal amounts and she knew she never really respected him…friend? No, god knows he tried but she never returned it. His mind was a brutal blasted landscape remise of Hell that was impenetrable save a few fissures that offered entrance. Only to lie and hide creatures with venom so intense that Raven retreated in fear and knew why true psychics like Brother Blood never tried to enter his mind before.

"We didn't leave you to die" it took only seconds for her to respond but in the time between seconds it felt like years.

He cut her deeply. His words burned through her core "Really? I called each of you at least seventeen thousand four hundred and twenty one times. If you didn't want me to die wouldn't you have picked up once?" his voice got calmer "Or maybe you hoped I'd die before that. When none of you even bothered to ask me to do anything. You ran away back to Gotham with your tail between your legs like a beaten dog just because you didn't like that the others actually grew the spines to tell you no. You ran because you didn't want to make the emotional mistakes you know your people make, you knew that you would fail if you stayed and how badly it would hurt Cyborg. You ran because you saw your teammates falling apart and you'd do anything not to see it, if it fell apart and you were half way across the world you'd feel better, like your running did nothing to pull it down. You ran because you didn't want to see the face of the mistake you made, the man you gave your virginity to that didn't love you like you thought you love him." he pointed to each member in turn.

Nightwing stepped forward, an angry scowl painting his face "Beast Boy! You're going way to far!"

Typhon faced him with a deep snarl "No, I haven't gone far enough. And even if I did you would never be the one to tell me so. Before you throw stones at me _oh perfect one_ count your own flaws, **lie** to me, tell me they don't number my own."

Kara knew what was coming. The Alpha would assert his dominance "Boss" she said it so softly that he turned to look at her and the cutting edges of his face mellowed "Me and Slipshot'll take Oracle to the Control room"

* * *

In the few short weeks Abigail had known him she grew to love Gar. He was like an older brother, he gently scolded her when she did something stupid but he always wanted her to stand up tall. She could see how happy he was for her and Kara. But there were those moments that she caught out of the corner of her eye, those moments when Gar only wished for a fraction of that acceptance. It wasn't something she could understand, humans were scared by him when he himself was more human than these paper people they protected.

The gentle squeak of the wheelchair's rubber against the tile was the only sound as Abby, Kara, Barbra and Gar made their way to the room. Slowly Barbra's hand stretched out and gripped Gar's. Her voice was soft and very sad "I'm sorry, I should have done something, anything to get him to stop-"

Gar knelt in front of her "Barbra. You didn't do anything wrong. You've helped me far more than I've done for you. It was his decision and I'll deal with him for it. You've done nothing wrong."

The tears in her eyes were hard for the other women to deal with. Thankfully the door opened quickly and they shuffle into the small room "What's going to happen?"

Kara looked at their guest "Gar is going to show them that he is the Alpha."

"But why?"

Abby pushed the record button before sitting in one of the chairs "Because until they see how much stronger than them he is they won't see him as their boss. They'll see the boy that followed them around."

The room below wasn't quiet as the doors opened and the former titans walked in one by one. Gar wasn't their friend but the commanding officer of the Titans "I will show you our difference. I won't use my powers. You are to try to kill me"

Barbra saw the smirk painted on the other two girls' faces "This will be good" Kara chuckled and her girlfriend nodded without tearing their eyes away from the large glass panel.

Raven, Starfire and Cyborg glanced at Nightwing before a scoff drew their faces back to Typhon "Such tools, you forget that he abandoned you the instant you're back together. If he owns you that much just brand his name on your asses and be done with it"

The three bristled before Nightwing stepped forward "Beast Boy, there's no way we can do that!"

With a short growl he answered them "Fine, I'll make this easy" and the rosary around his wrist disappeared into a hidden pocket before a slam sounded through the room.

Nightwing's groan of pain was met by gasps, his face was covered by Typhon's palm as the latter held him a good foot off the ground and slammed the back of his head into the wall again. A small twitch later and the hand was choking the former leader who lashed out with kicks and punches trying to get the one eyed man to drop him as the others watched in horror.

A birdarang hit him in the bicep before bending against his thick skin and trained muscle, a sonic cannon splashed across his ribs only to dissipate in his extraordinarily dense body. A black chain jarred his arm and shattered as the half-demon's powers faded. What made him drop the man was a star bolt aimed at his face, it hit his palm and smoked for a few seconds.

The scene was forever imprinted on everyone's mind. Typhon had just taken their best blow. Starfire's bolts were pure condensed energy, one of them was comparable to a power plant working six hours. All it did was smoke his hand up a bit. Nightwing sat on the floor in a heap holding his throat and coughing before a foot smashed his face into the floor. "When dealing with multiple opponents take out the leader first, sow confusion in the ranks." came from the changeling as he punched Cyborg's chest so hard as to leave an inch deep impression and cause him to spark uncontrollably.

Starfire gasped "Boyfriend Cyborg!" before a kick to the temple sent the metal man flying headfirst into a wall and another kick, this time to the princess's stomach, sent her careening to the other wall. She stood for a moment before her head was grabbed and slammed into the changeling's knee.

Raven watched in utter horror as he annihilated their-her friends. The three were barely conscious as he spoke "To be honest I'm beyond disappointed."

Raven growled "You haven't taken me down!"

Giving her a blank look he did attack her "You've been gone seven years and yet you still distance yourself, do you even really trust them?" she blinked and her hands sparked with energy "You let them fall so easily…is it because you don't really care for them? I know you hated me."

"I care for them just like I cared for you!" she screeched before lashing out with a wave of dark energy that was so off target he didn't even need to evade.

"Then you want them dead? How cold of a friend are you?" he moved the bandages off his good eye and stared at her "Raven, face it, I didn't register as a friend, not a comrade. To you I was a pawn who wouldn't go away. How many times did you threaten my life? Scream at me and wish for me to disappear? Want me to be silenced no matter the cost?"

She growled "Because you annoyed me! Not because I wanted you dead!" another wave of poorly aimed energy lashed out and the former titans kept down, not just out of pain, but to avoid the random waves of destruction.

He appeared only inches from her face "Let's say I believed you for one moment…then why did you never ask what I would do when you left?" it brought everything to a standstill. He had tried to hold them together for years, he was the one everyone went to if they needed to relax. They hadn't seen it but he took their stresses as his own. Very slowly Raven's eyes widened as her hands fell. Gar stepped right in front her, his cheek brushed hers as her breast touched his chest "None of you thought about me as I did you." and he twitched sending her on a very short flight into a wall.

She stood up shakily and held the side of her head where his had hit. A hand touched her elbow and she saw the black glove and jerked away, Nightwing took a step in front of her "Beast Bo-Typhon. I'm sorry-"

"No you're not" the black and blue snapped his mouth shut in shock "You're not sorry about what you did, you're not sorry about what happened to me. For the sake of everything you hold dear do _not_ lie to me again." their attacker moved to Cyborg who rubbed his head with a groan "Cyborg…I spent many hours trying to get you to understand why I avoid meat. I finally found one." and for the robot man the world slowed. Typhon gripped his wrist hard enough that his attempts to pry his hand free were doomed to failure before a subtle snap filled the air as Typhon's jaw unhinged before crushing down with a thousand guillotine blades across the metallic wrist.

Cyborg was shoved away as he stared at the wrist missing it's hand. The crunch of metal being destroyed filled the air "Not as bitter as I thought it would be…" the sound of it passing beyond his mouth echoed in the silent room "Get cleaned up, I made sure not to leave bruises for a reason."

As the four were taking care of themselves the trio of women and Typhon sat in the kitchen, Barbra couldn't help but speak as soon as the battered group left the room "That was…"

"Brutal, harsh, vindictive?" finished Typhon

"Graceful." the man making a light dinner froze. In his many years of this line of work he had very rarely taken a compliment and more often than not they were insults he interpreted as positive.

For a moment his hand came off the handle of the pan and it ran down his mouth a few times before he ignored her.

Barbra watched his face "Um, Gar?" he continued to ignore her.

Abby snickered "He's not used to compliments"

The only blond watched Gar instead of the other girls, it wasn't an old reaction but more like he was tossed in the deep end with no experience "Gar? Have you ever been complimented?"

"About my fighting? Only once. After I lost my arm."

Oracle pushed her glasses up her nose "What's the story on that?"

Almost as if in response the door opened and the four heroes walked in killing any chance she would get an answer. The few short minutes of cooking were wrapped up in silence but before the meal began a set of beeps issued forth from Gar's communicator, the device held a single picture, almost a vault door with a caption that read _found on Main._

Every line in his body tensed "Oracle, get on all the computers, get me feeds from Main until this door is located." with a flick he sent the picture from his com set to the main screen "The rest of you are with me, Raven, make a disc for Cyborg and Nightwing, Supergirl-you get Slipshot."

They darted to the roof before they could see Typhon hand Oracle something as he passed her. As he leapt off the railing and into the air a ripple went through his body as he morphed into a falcon and let out piercing shriek that warned the city: _get in my way and die._

Unseen by the heroes, every civilian heard the cry, the sleeping woke, the babes stopped their cries, the innocent took comfort and the vile trembled. The full moon overhead illuminated everything in silver and allowed the shadows to fly at tremendous speeds. The police officer that sent the photo had known that doing anything would have resulted in his death, but he knew what orders dictated and left a flare that burned brightly and waited. When Typhon landed he looked to the shadow where he was hiding "Well done, now go home and be safe. Leave this to us." it was said gently and the young man nodded before taking off.

The circular door looked exactly like something out of a bank only twenty feet wide built into the side of a small hill that had been part of a park in the rundown portion of town many years ago. A dozen skeletal robots came out from around the door before charging the heroes. Typhon's voice was heard "Shit, it's Scales…Cyborg, Nightwing get the door open, Starfire, Raven cover them!"

Slipshot could feel how the energy was moving through the robots and quickly aimed at the chest cavity before the order snapped her out of her tunnel vision "Fry them."

She gripped her guns tighter and let the ends spark once before two miniature lightning bolts splashed against he metal chest and fried the circuits beneath. Gar stepped forward and studied the machine for a moment, everything about it looked like a human skeleton, the radius and ulna and humorous made up the arm, etc. But there was one thing that caught his attention on the weakness, the chest cavity was one solid piece, there were ribs molded into the metal, but it acted like a box to hold the circuits and the bundle of wires that smoked within the vertebra between the head and the chest caught his attention.

From the outside of his wrist came a pure white blade, the same bone white as his shirt, the spine was straight while the edge had a taper and the blade tip would touch the floor as he stood straight up. One quick swipe and the chest cavity and skull were split neatly in half and all the wires exposed "Aim for the head and chest."

Supergirl was smashing though the metal left and right while the hardened metal was the worse type of armor against Slipshot who's each move brought down at least two. Star's bolts did damage but it often took three or four to bring one down, Raven's blades of dark magic did wonders but the number she needed to conjure were quickly tiring her. Nightwing and Cyborg were failing against the door, it was locked with a special biometric key that was encoded within the ridges of the person's fingers so that entry would be all but impossible.

But they all stopped as Gar really started to fight. He let out a bellowing roar that stopped all the robots before they instantly swarmed him. Without shifting he used the blade on his wrist to absolutely devastating effect. The metallic skeletons should have swarmed him by now…but Typhon could destroy them faster than the others could keep up with. Nightwing watched for a moment longer before throwing an electric grenade at the robots. The electrified gel shocked two but also made him a target and Cyborg leapt into the fray as well.

Suddenly it became woefully apparent how out of their depth they were. In the town that Nightwing took over there were villains, true, but none of them went through the time and effort to specifically design something to neutralize him. These robots did that magnificently, the metal was hard enough that his bo broke on the second hit and he was quickly running out of the pouched tools he often used. Cyborg was in the same dilemma. During his travels they very rarely faced the same opponent twice so the chances of stopping him was very low. These machines were made out of a metal similar to his and it took four of his best hits to break one, his cannon faired a bit better but each shot drained his battery to the point that it soon became dangerous to use it.

Supergirl noticed their sudden and immediate danger before screaming "SLIPSHOT!" without needing anything further the two Titans pulled Raven, Starfire and the two guys back against the door. With all of them in that position it was far easier, Nightwing and Supergirl ran defense by throwing the attacking skeletons back into the masses, the latter's destroyed while the former's sadly lacked the force. Raven, Slipshot and Starfire could bombard those getting though the line or to close and Cyborg could focus his shots at a slower pace and stop his drain from being quite so dramatic.

But no matter how many they destroyed the swarm seemed unending and one got through the flagging heroes and grabbed Slipshot by her throat. Her croak was a herald of something much more dangerous.

The arm suddenly disconnected from the body before the machine could register what happened. Both parts exploded as the green man let out a roar that shook the ground. Deliberately he moved the crossed bandages off his eye and growled.

The heroes shuddered at the rumble that continued to shake his chest marking his anger. The blade disappeared as his fist slammed though one of the machines before he gripped another by the skull and squeezed and it shuddered and stilled as the vital circuits were crushed under the force.

At some point watching the carnage the others got their second wind, a determination not to be out done, not to have their jobs done for them. In the aftermath the job seems horrendously one-sided. Each scrap was signed with damage that might as well have been a signature, more often than not the completely smooth cut of a white blade or a jagged hole just smaller than Cyborg's and slightly larger than Supergirl's.

Cyborg couldn't quite stop the panting of moving his massive body that quickly. Typhon stared at the door before the blade appeared on his arm and the lunging stab slammed into the metal with a bell-like chime that stunned the others. A small whisper filled the air "Not a nick on the blade…but too small a dent." came from Typhon before he even moved, the inch deep gouge in the metal was better than the other two males had done in less then a fraction of the time.

Slipshot, worn out from the fight and the metal hand around her neck, put forth "Should we call Oracle?"

"No need, I'll get through it in a second." her boss said as he took a deep breath and faced the door before a sharp whistle started before going higher and higher until it passed out of human hearing. For a moment there was silence before the sound of a bubble popping caught their attention and the group scrambled to see what was happening. Impossibly the surface of the metal started to bubble as the inaudible whistle continued to wreak havoc on it for another four minutes before the attacker had to take a deep breath and shake his head. Letting out a hiss he turned to them "Get back." and pure white covered him like a second skin and in under a quarter of a minute he looked almost like a mannequin, perfect bone white with not a seam, his joints moved fluidly and revealed no gaps.

They took a few steps but the encased Titan turned and gestured them further, somehow able to sense how far they were behind him. At a hundred feet they finally saw what was going on. The man in the white case took a deep breath and opened his mouth as wide as humanly possible then some, a deep rumble started in his chest before he exhaled in a short burst. For a moment there was nothing.

Then all hell broke loose.

A firestorm that would have put Raven's father to shame erupted from the door, the sound of thunder smashing through their bones rattled the very air and the ground shook from the heat as the ground dried, cracked and vaporized in nanoseconds.

After the winds died down the man in white was unmarred…but the door's remains were in boiling puddles around him "Supergirl, if you would be so kind as to use your artic breath?"

They all stared dumbly at the carbonized wastes before them. Rocks were melting in the aftermath and the grass that had been around the area was vaporized by the instantaneous rush of steam and heat from both inside and out.

"Am I going to have to go in by myself?" snapped the leader who's armor gradually receded as the others took a few steps before the ice cold air made the heat in the area bearable. The molten rock died into flames before Starfire could take her eyes away from it and follow the rest of the heroes into the dark tunnel.

The door had hidden a pathway slightly smaller than the door filled with twists and turns that were only illuminated by a few forgotten bulbs that sparked and fizzled at random intervals. The downward stairs ended and the sound of the floor changed to the hard clack of something different. Bright lights flicked on and the group found themselves in a trap.

A glass floor separated them from a long drop onto spikes, before and behind them were glass walls. On the other side was a small man, probably on the lower side of four feet, older, and around mid-fifties, his white hair was fading in the middle and the remaining hair was pulled over to try to hide the spot, slouching forward one hand held a clipboard to his chest and the other was tucked behind him, thick glasses obscured his eyes and his white lab coat was opened allowing the heroes to see his blue turtleneck sweater and jeans, beside him stood four of the skeleton robots "Quite the destructive night isn't it Gar…sorry, Typhon" the nasally villain voiced.

Typhon didn't even look around "Well, I would have liked to sleep tonight…but I take it this isn't a social call Scales?"

Scales sighed "I wanted you with us Gar…" he said longingly.

Typhon tilted his head "No offence but generally siding with a psychopath isn't good for ones health"

Scales blinked "None taken…I think. Well, seeing as you're here I may as well just explain what's going on. You're standing on very thin glass, but the walls are pretty thick, so if you increase your muscle mass to what you need to break the walls you'll destroy the floor and all of you will fall onto the spikes…Now, I'm going to ask just once. Will you hand over the Ocean Egg?"

Typhon's answer was not in that school of thought. "You know a lot about me Scales, but there's one creature I can't control. He and I always work together…" the green man shifted. It started as a ripple like a stone dropped into the water and his form blurred before quickly solidifying into the Beast.

Both arms lashed out and were accompanied by brutal screeching as the long claws cut into the glass. The former Titans were ready for the Beast to attack as the robots and their creator quickly fled. Only a second after Scales disappeared around a bend in the tunnel before them the claws of the Beast touched the floor leaving a gap wide enough for them all to pass. Supergirl stepped through after her boss with Slipshot right behind her.

The others hesitated until the Beast looked back at them and snorted before loping off down the tunnel on all fours. Supergirl scowled "Come on! We're not waiting any longer!" and the two new girls took off after him.

This knocked them out of their trance and they quickly rushed after the group. Twists and turns confused them and within minutes they were completely and utterly lost, only the glimpse of a red cape and the occasional sound brought them forward, not that there was any other routes they could have taken.

The end of the hall had Supergirl and Slipshot standing beside a now human Typhon who screamed in rage before slamming a fist into the earthen wall before them. Taking in breath after breath he explained "Scales had a new digging machine waiting for him. He got in before I even got here…"

Nightwing asked "Why don't you dig after it?"

Snapping around and at the former leader the changeling took one step forward "Because Nightwing that thing burrows through the ground at over fifty miles an hour, no form I have, even enhanced, could catch it let alone take it down."

It took another moment of breathing before Slipshot even dared to ask "What do we do now?"

" _We_ get out of here and then _I'll_ hunt down the Twelve"

Raven stepped forward "Why you? Why not all of us?"

Typhon glared at her and she was forced to suppress the shudder that ran through her. "Because, Daughter of Trigon," she bristled at the reminder "These are people who could potentially kill off all of you as easily as I breath. Just for example there's Anti who absorbs _all_ energy around him, meaning Cyborg's battery would die in seconds, Starfire couldn't summon any star bolts or her own super strength, your power wouldn't come, Supergirl would be in the same condition and Slipshot would be nothing but a normal human, Nightwing would be the obvious…but considering that he's beaten Batman that rules out his apprentice, then even worse is Butcher, he doesn't have any powers but he's extremely skilled in killing and taking people apart piece by piece. And he enjoys it to the point where he gets off on it. Cannibalism and necrophilia are just some of the more depraved things he indulges in and he's also got the tactical genius to rival any hero I know of"

Supergirl and Slipshot paled at that and Starfire slowly touched ground at the news, Cyborg nodded suddenly very pale "We need to get out of here"

It took several minutes for the group to leave the earth room where Scales had disappeared, they were forced to backtrack until they came across a door hidden in the shadows when running to the room but not away from it. Inside was a way out.

Guarded by some fifty odd henchmen.

Typhon grit his teeth before sighing loudly "Alright guys, here's what's going on, under Code 4-7-5-1 of the Jump City penal code all of you are considered class A criminals. Meaning that if you die in the process of being arrested nobody's going to bat an eye. If you let me take you in peacefully, four years tops."

The goons just grinned and one of them stepped forward until he stood an arms length away from the shape shifter. Very slowly he pulled the pin from two grenades and let them drop.

With another sigh Typhon ended the farce. His left leg shot out and shattered the man's pelvis before he grabbed the man and threw him on top of the grenades and pressing a foot into the aggressor's spine.

A short two count later everyone was painted red. "Now who's next?" he said as he spread his arm.

A monster of a man stood, at nearly eight feet he towered over everybody else. He didn't speak, instead he let out a roar and charged.

Supergirl had a moment of déjà vu before it happened. Harder.

Once again the brutality took them all by surprise. His foot lashed out and hit the man in the chest. There was a distinct cracking noise-the sternum shattering and the shards being forced through organs before the ripples of the hit destroyed the spine.

He fell. Dead. Blood pooling out of his mouth. One of the living men looked at the two stains on the ground before asking "Heh…uh, how many sets of cuffs you got?"

"Enough"

* * *

The Tower was unnaturally silent as the heroes returned. Oracle quickly spoke with Gar as he made his way to his room for a shower and the others followed the idea. The parting words from the commander were "Meet back here in an hour for dinner" that was it.

It hadn't been half that time before the group was reassembled. The meal had yet to be started and the one who usually cooked was standing at the window staring out across the golden-orange bay.

All to often in life things come to a head underneath the thin veneer of civility. Rage erupts from seemingly nowhere until someone remembers their place.

Richard stomped forward before jerking Gar's collar, the green man's face unflinching from the move "What the Hell Gar?! We don't kill people!"

"It became necessary when I became sixteen, as a control measure against the rising tide of crime." came the blank response.

A snap rang in the air before Gar's face turned once again to stare at Richard who blinked and looked at his hand not grasping his friend, out to the left and trembling slightly from the force of the blow. Kara and Abby stared enraged, Starfire, Raven and Cyborg in shock. And Barbra in some deep understanding that could not be hidden.

Richard dropped him before taking one step back before he grunted "Why?"

"Because you weren't there…" it started softly but grew until he screamed and growled and snarled at those who abandoned him "because you weren't there when she stabbed me in the back. Because you weren't there when See-More gave his life so Gizmo, Wykyd and Mammoth could be free. Because you weren't there when Aquaman's leg was blown off! Because you weren't there when they shattered Jinx's **skull**! Because you weren't there when Menos and I were tortured with **Menos until he died! Because you weren't there when all Mas and I could do was ease his passing! BECAUSE YOU WEREN'T THERE WHEN MAS SLIT HIS OWN THROAT IN LOSS! BECAUSE YOU WEREN'T THERE WHEN THEY RIPPED KID FLASH'S STOMACH OUT! BECAUSE YOU WEREN'T THERE WHEN ARIE'S BOYFRIEND KILLED HER UNBORN CHILD AND CRUSHED HER HOPES OF EVER CARRYING HER OWN BABE! BECAUSE YOU WEREN'T THERE WHEN BUMBLE BEE WAS RAPED!"**

He stormed out leaving the group at a silent loss.

* * *

If things had not gone quite so sourly with the robots the next several days would have passed in silence. But the early morning was punctuated with Gar glaring at Superman with the remnants of something crushed to oblivion within his grasp "YOU knew this would happen! You knew I'd have to do this!"

Clark wasn't looking well, he was wilting under the one-eyed glare "I did what I had to do…" he mumbled.

"NO! You overstepped your boundaries and invited them, trespassing on Titan business. Now I'm going to ask one question and I demand the answer: why?"

The man on the screen went quiet for several moments, though the man watching said nothing "…Because they need you…if the Twelve or whatever they want to call themselves now continues they'll go after the former Titans as well and you're the only one who's excelled at one on one combat against that group."

Gar didn't look at the group behind him when he answered "But you forget one thing Clark. I don't care if they live or die"

Kara and Abby watched Barbra who met their eyes and nodded in understanding, Starfire and Cyborg nearly cried while Raven and Richard just stared blankly.

Clark cut the feed and Gar turned around "All of you, minus Barbra and the Titans will start on the lower tier of my workout, yesterday was pitiful" he snapped before he took several breaths "Kara, Abby, you did well. I'm moving you up to my level. Barbra, I have several questions I'd like to ask you after we get back"

In the end only Gar walked back into the room, Kara and Abby were carried in one shot and in a very comfortable way. Richard, Kory and Raven were next, piled atop one bony shoulder unceremoniously followed by Vic who was dragged along the floor.

Barbra watched him as her hands flicked through the files slower and slower until they came to a stop "Gar…I have a question…" he looked up "Um, in the files it says…well your past is deleted…"

The commander nodded "My first official act was to permanently destroy that file. Now there exists only one copy, a file of papers hidden in the tower. My past has several things that would put my authority into question" as the others started to wake he finished "The file has my traumas…and I didn't have a choice in becoming the leader"

The girl smiled "I know, I was just curious"

In what seemed to be the thousandth deep breath he took in only a few short days he handed her a holster with a pistol "It was stupid of both Bruce and Richard to not give you something to protect yourself. _You_ of all people need to be able to. I will never leave an ally without protection. I'm going to make you a better shot than any of the trigger happy bastards out there" he gestured out the window "Starting tomorrow I'll take you to the shooting range while the others work out, I've got a tutor for you there"

She hummed lightly and stuck the gun behind her back so her boyfriend wouldn't see it, he tended to worry but she couldn't wipe the smile off her face. Somebody treated her as an equal, not a crippled.

Kara was the first to wake up and she slowly staggered to the kitchen to grab a glass of water, with Abby close behind, they waved at Barbra who returned it before again typing on her laptop. Raven's body went into a healing trance and after the initial shock the other heroes let it go.

It was only a few minutes after that Raven woke up, tired and groggy Raven sat at the table before Kara and Abby sat in front of her, the latter studied her analytically while the former glared and said "Raven, there is exactly one question you need to answer. Have you slept with Cyborg?"

The half demon blinked in shock. Never would she have dreamed they would ask that "No, I didn't, nor do I ever plan to"

Kara, by far the more emotional of the two, just grit her teeth as Abby growled out "Shit!"

Barbra was forced to ask "Why does it matter?"

Abby hesitated but Kara had no such reservations "Many years ago, before you left Gar had feelings for you. There are still echoes of that. We had hoped that you had fucked him and that it would allow Gar to sever those ties."

Raven and Barbra could do nothing but stare. It was a sound idea. If they could destroy any chance Gar had with her the crush on her would die and he could regain some semblance of normalcy. But any more meditation on it would have to wait as the alarm sounded.

In a flash Oracle was in front of the computer tracing everything she could while Typhon rushed from the roof in the form of a sparrow "Oracle, what is it?"

"Some Adonis person is robbing the Jump National bank, and being…a public nuisance?"

The Father of All Monsters rubbed his forehead "Raven, Cyborg, Starfire and Nightwing are forbidden from exiting the tower. Supergirl, Slipshot, I hope your ready for your first pubic fight"

The two girls were nearly jumping with excitement, this was the first call he thought they could handle and even after upping their workout! It was also a testament to his trust in them.

* * *

Adonis had avoided Jump City for years, in fact, since the two females on the team left he simply hadn't bothered, he caused a minor ruckus in Superman's turf only to have the Man of Steel treat him like a joke, he secluded himself to work on his suit. But word spread that there were now four very attractive girls on the team…well, he had to introduce himself.

Currently he was storming his way down the steps of the bank when two hotties, one carrying the other landed in front of him with a green bird, who shifted into the dog…but he was a bit different.

Typhon didn't really want to deal with this but he had no choice "Adonis…it's been a long time"

The villain laughed "You've been lucky Dog! With only your scrawny ass to impress I haven't wanted to come out and play! Give me the women and I won't kill you!" he demanded.

Slipshot and Supergirl were totally disgusted and the later barked out "If you even try I **will** deman you!"

The bodybuilder shook his head sadly "Well, I'll give you just one more ch-" a fist to his chest sent him flying ten feet before the ton and a half suit hit the ground.

"Get up Adonis, you and I aren't even close to done" came the green assailant's command.

With a roar he stood as tall as he could "Stupid mutt! I'll rip you in half!"

Typhon thought for a moment "I bet you can't even lift me up" he provoked.

"WHAT!?"

"You need me to say it again? Alright, even with your suit I'll bet your inadequacies show through. If you can pick me up I'll let you go."

Supergirl and Slipshot looked on horrified question. There was no way in Hell they could just let a villain walk away but Typhon did always have a plan…for now all they could do was bide their time.

The man in red walked over and wrapped his hands around an unflinching Titan, gripping his shoulders he tried to pull.

Only to nearly fall as the resistance stopped him. Again and again he tried until his muscles, both organic and mechanical strained.

"Now this is becoming a waste of time" was the last thing he heard before a fist smashed through his glass visor and the world turned to black.

Slipshot stared at him "Why did you taunt him like that?"

"Adonis is a…personal aggravator in the extreme. Several times in the past he's harassed both myself and Raven to the point that it was obscene, and he's also the type of person I can't stand the most-those who think they are infallible and perfect."

Supergirl hesitated "I guess you taught both of us the lesson…my bad" it was delayed in the extreme but it was also the truth.

He waved her off "You changed and are now a Titan, don't forget that. But idiots like him won't change"

As they descended the stairs from the roof Gar's jaw clenched harder and harder, something his hearing picked up was aggravating him. They entered into a battleground.

Barbra, Victor and Starfire were sitting at the booth watching Raven and Richard scream at each other in front of the couch "YOU took my virginity!"

"You insisted! No guy could turn that down!"

Raven's powers were sparking around her "You knew what was going on!"

"Both of you shut the hell up. At least you lost your virginity to sex" Gar calmly said.

Richard blinked "You can't pop your cherry other than sex…"

But a horrified look slowly came over everyone's face as they realize what had happed. Starfire spoke up "T-Titan Gar…were you…? R-raped?"

Gar sat on the couch "Yes. But that's in the past."

The room suddenly went very quiet before Abby spoke up "You don't just get over those sort of things"

"What do you want me to share? Is this some sort of help group now?"

Kara walked over to him and wrapped her arms around him. Gar tensed at the hug, totally unused to the contact, she whispered "Gar, you're our friend, we're here to help now"

"I decline" Gar stood "And why should I tell any of you? Last time I tried to get close to people they left" he then started walking out of the room.

The redheaded human stood up "When I was ten I realized I had powers, I tried really had to keep them hidden…but there was a boy I really liked, and I think he liked me too. He saw my powers and called me a freak, it hurt a lot more than I was willing to admit. It's not close to anything you've gone through but it's one of the only bad things I've ever been though"

Kara whispered "Gar, we know that you know all of our pasts, how could you not? You **are** the Titan's central pillar-you can't afford to take chances with your personnel. But _please_ , let us share your burden"

Very slowly he sat down, though not as much sitting as letting gravity take hold of him "Okay. But I'm only saying this once and I won't have you telling this to anybody"

* * *

My parents were Mark and Marie Logan, two biologist who specialized in rare strains of bacteria and viruses. Though I was born in the States we were here for only a few months, we traveled many different places, the Netherlands, the Amazon, Australia. But the most important place was Africa.

We made our way through the dark heart when I was attacked by a monkey infected with Sakutia. Sakutia is one of the rarest and oldest diseases in the world.

And the most lethal.

It was recorded in Babylon and the Indus River Valley, in the first stages it causes intense pain and delusions with an almost rabies like need to bite others, a propagation mechanism. Second comes uncontrollable deformations, the body literally starts to break down and rebuild. The final stages are complete uncontrollable shifting from one species to another followed almost immediately with death.

My parents had somehow gotten their hands on a severely weakened strain and studying it when the attack happened and concocted a serum to try to stabilize me rather than fend off the disease. Very quickly we learned that the 'cure' only stabilized my genetic material enough that I could change it at will. Four months later they went over the waterfall and died. I was four months shy of my fourth birthday.

I stayed at the village where we had set up base camp, they were kind people. But somehow two thieves caught wind of my abilities and stormed the camp and killed everyone. They used me.

I was their personal thief and assassin, they beat me and starved me. I did what they asked for a few more pathetic moments of breath. They raped me. They did whatever they wanted and left me to do their dirty work. I lived in a small cage for four months before an accident happened. There exist certain snakes who's venom acts very much like freezing to death, you simply go to sleep and never wake up.

That time they had shattered both my arms. They had both left camp to find their next target and they had left their open pot unattended. I sprayed it with enough venom to kill a bull elephant.

After that I snuck out and got to the nearest city. Coming back Stateside was my fourth birthday gift from whatever being is out there.

I was put in the care of somebody who worked with my father. I ended up trading one tyrant for another. He experimented on me day and night for an entire year. He died in a mysterious accident, his closet was enormous, in it were suits he hadn't even seen for years. One day he decided to try one on. Inside the left cuff was a brown recluse, in his haste it bit him. He did not recognize the signs that it was a venomous species. As he tried to stomp it, it scurried under his door and into the recesses of the closet.

By the time he went to the hospital it was far to late. They sent the police to find out if there was any risk to the general population. There they found me in a small cage in the closet.

When they freed me I immediately got the hell away from them. Since then normal people scare me. They may not have powers but they are capable of the most horrendous evil.

I couldn't trust them. So I found the Doom Patrol and they took me on. I was five.

I did missions with them until I turned thirteen when I couldn't stand Mento staring down at me like I was a bug he stomped underfoot and came here.

After you left things took a bad turn.

* * *

"…And that's all I'm saying"

They stared in shock before Vic shouted "But that's not nearly everything!"

"Of course not, why the hell would I tell you of my failings after you tried to have me killed?" Gar said totally straight faced.

Richard blinked "We didn't try to have you killed!"

" _Try_ nothing, I died at least four times" he stood up and lifted his chin in defiance "I got to see amazing things beyond this flesh. None of which are mine. I am doomed to Hell for simply surviving and doing what I thought was right" he walked out leaving the others in silence.

It was two days before any of them gathered the courage to speak to him.

* * *

Gar stood in front of the main ops computer and glared behind his bandages at Richard "I'm going to call one of my informants. If you can't handle that then get the hell out of my tower"

The black and blue nodded "I can handle it"

A simple "I doubt that" was heard before Gar opened the com line. "Slade. Any news about the Twelve?"

The orange and black mask stared back "Yes…though you aren't going to like it"

The leader stepped back and gestured to the former titans "I'm already in a permanent state of pissed the fuck off. What it is?"

Deathstroke the Terminator sighed deeply and closed his eye for a moment "Out of the seven, Ocean, Jungle, Mountain, Artic, Sky, Desert, Serengeti…they have two."

Gar clenched his fist "Which ones?"

"They have possession of the Sky Egg and the Mountain Egg is on it's way to them"

The leader picked up something "Where is it and why don't they have it at the moment?"

The masked man looked down as he shuffled through some papers "The Egg was discovered in a remote region of Iran by an independent excavation team who was wiped out and the Egg taken by an unknown entity that put it up for sale under a blank name and enough proxies that finding the person is nearly impossible." taking a breath the man looked up "The Twelve bought it but since the seller is unknown they have no way of getting it or of knowing what the channels are." he paused "Gar…there is a possibility that the carrier _Mareth_ that is coming to port in Steel City in the next few days is carrying it."

Gar nodded "I just sent twice the usual to your account"

Slade was visibly taken aback "Why? I haven't done anything."

Gar smiled "I want you to keep me up to date…Titan Intelligence Commander"

The older mercenary gave a small salute before cutting the feed. Almost everyone in the room had questions for the green man but he never gave them the chance to ask. The feed to Titan's East appeared and focused on Bee who held a baby to her chest. She looked up and quietly greeted "Hey Gar" as she gently bounced the baby up and down.

The reflection off the glass showed a very serious Gar "Bee…I don't want to disturb you but something huge has come up…"

"Give me a minute" was all she said before she disappeared for a few moments. Kid Flash, Jinx, Speedy and Bee reappeared without the baby "Gar…what is it?" her looked concerned.

"An Egg may be coming your way. Slade got word that the carrier _Mareth_ will be making port shortly in Steel, on it is the Mountain Egg. I'm authorizing you to detain that ship until the Egg is found and _personally_ delivered to me. I want you to personally come to this city to deliver it, before you let go of it your hands better touch mine." he hesitated "If this goes wrong it could cause untold destruction…"

Speedy put a hand on Bee's shoulder "Gar…I don't think we can spare the man power to cover while we're there"

The Commander nodded "Don't worry, I'll strong arm the League into helping. Just think of it as a vacation for you, Bee and the little one. I think Jinx and KF are wanting to see how well they do now that they're cleared for action again."

The yellow and red nodded "Hell yeah Boss! Let me at 'em!" Jinx just rolled her eyes with an affectionate smile.

Bee nodded "Alright. Over and out"

"Over and out" echoed the green man before the line closed.

Nightwing shook himself out of his stupor "That was Slade…"

Typhon turned "Yes it was. That's why I warned you"

The former leader exploded "Why are you talking to him!? He tried to kill us at least a dozen times! Don't tell me you forgot Terra!"

The unsociable chill that Typhon always seemed to admit turned fatal in a second "Richard. What I am going to say next is one of the concrete reasons I haven't killed you yet." the voice was calm but the words were frosted with anger and all those in the room took a step back "People change. Terra became a hero again, Slade saved my life more times than I'd care to admit, you and the others left me to die. People change" he stepped past the former Titans "Barbra, Kara, Abby, if you have a moment I'd like to talk to you privately"

The three girls followed him out and the others gathered around in a small group "Beloved Victor…I do not understand why Fri-Commander Typhon would enlist the help of Ene-Former Enemy Slade"

The part robot couldn't answer "Star…I don't know either. It's like Beast Boy and Typhon are two different people, I can't relate them at all"

Nightwing, past grievances put aside for the moment, agreed "Maybe if we knew what happened after we left…"

Raven watched quietly before she asked the question that had been plaguing her "Why didn't we ask him if he wanted to go with us?"

Starfire looked at the walls "Titan Gar most certainly hear us through the walls" she warned.

They ignored her "He was trying to hard to be cheerful, I needed to get away from him. Asking him didn't even cross my mind." Victor confessed.

Richard looked at the wall "How could I have asked? Not that it crossed my mind either, but there wasn't any mistake that Gar and I weren't friends even before we split. He listened to me because he liked you guys and the city, he could barely tolerate me on our best days."

Raven took a long minute to think "He and I were friends, yes, but he was too immature to really understand what I was feeling with all…that" she waved her hand between herself and Richard "…or so I thought. There was no way I could have even suspected that he had been…" her face paled more than usual at the mere mention of the act that had brought her to fruition.

Starfire didn't speak. She didn't know why she didn't invite him. Without a doubt he was the one who did the most for her even when she was dating either of the other boys he was never too busy to help. There were many nights he spent in the med-bay listening to her problems. The princess felt like scum.

He did everything he could to save the Titans and keep them together, as a team and personally and they did this to him. "I do not know why I did not ask Friend Garfield to accompany us."

"Because all of you were blinded to your own petty problems. You were so wrapped up in yourselves and your drama that you couldn't have even seen the Joker if he was right in front of your face." Barbra spat from the entrance between the two rooms.

Raven's eyes flared white "Don't you dare speak to us like that! You don't have the right to! You haven't earned it!"

Kara stepped in front of the information expert "Yes she has. She learned of pain in ways you haven't Daughter of Scath."

Richard stepped in at the name "Don't call Raven that, she's spent her entire life trying to escape that shadow!"

Abby snarled "Well now, look at this! The man who broke her heart now playing hero, hypocrisy at it's finest. No wonder you didn't last, you can't keep it together for even a few minutes"

Victor glared "Don't you even think about it! We've been doing this for years, before you even started I was already like this, a monster to anyone else!"

Another voice burned through the air "If you want to be a monster then you better beg me to teach you how. I've been a god damn monster almost all of my life. Now, that you're through with your bitching… if any of you," he pointed to the former Titans "pick a fight with my team I will break your legs and end the argument myself. Understood?"

Oracle's boyfriend stared at her "He offered yo-"

"Understood?" it wasn't really a question. It was a command.

They nodded but he growled **"Understood?"**

Vic nodded "Yeah, we got ya'"

The green man's lip twitched up exposing a gleaming fang "What was that?"

"Understood…sir" Richard choked out.

"Good, now that I know you heard me I'm sending all of you, minus my team, to the Watchtower. I don't have time to baby sit you and now you've made it clear you can't even be polite house guests"

Raven blinked "House guests? We lived here for years!"

"And yet you abandoned it at the drop of a hat. Obviously things like 'home', 'family', 'friends' mean very little to you, so I'm not taking a single damn chance here."


	3. Chapter 3

In the third century B.C. the Egyptians and Greeks proved the world was round. A general, who's name is long lost into the winds of time, issued an edict with the backing of the pharaoh, four groups were to travel in the cardinal directions to see the lands and record them for their kingdom.

Those sent North returned having handed off their task to the Greeks.

Those sent West traveled to the end of the continent and could not gain passage further, they returned home as well.

Those sent South died as a ill prepared meal poisoned all of them.

Those sent East, including Sahlian the Elder…

* * *

"Barbra…I have spoken with the other Titans here" Gar gestured to the two women who stood on either side of him "I would like to ask you if you'll become a Titan"

The redhead was genuinely thrilled but it was tempered by what she knew "I'd love to but I don't really see how I can help…" she said gesturing to the chair.

Kara and Abby turned to see their commander, he had only asked if they would like her on the team, not in what capacity. "Really? You think you wouldn't be of help? Even after all your years of helping Batman and your boyfriend?"

"You need another member on the field, I can't do that"

The green man looked at her for a moment "What would you say if I told you I could fix your spine?"

Kara stepped forward "How sure are you?"

"Almost entirely, the only way I wouldn't be able to is if the nerve is entirely missing, which I know it isn't" any further words were cut off by his communicator sounding.

* * *

Tension was high, ran like a livewire under everyone's skin. Cyborg opened his mouth but it snapped shut. They had abandoned everything. "Tomorrow all of you are to take the Jump City air travel prototype to the Watchtower."

With infinite caution Starfire stared Typhon in the eye. "No."

Typhon's fist clenched as he fought against moving "I was not asking you."

The princess met his glare "Typhon, I have not been a very good friend. I will make it up to you"

The one armed man continued to glare as his eyes swept across the other three "No. All of you will be packed for transport at 8 a.m." He turned and walked out of the room, any argument would have to wait.

Starfire screamed something at him in her native tongue and he turned around slowly "Turn my back on my friends? Do you seriously believe I would still think of you as my friend after you abandoned me after all the pain you caused?" he strode forward until he was right in front of the alien "You stabbed me in the heart before you twisted the knife, then you stabbed me in the back, what part of that says friend to you?"

Star glared at him, her eyes glowing green with barely repressed rage "Friends forgive each other do they not?" she hissed.

He tilted his head, much like someone studying a particularly interesting bug under a microscope "I know more of your people than you would care to believe, and I know that deserting a friend in need is considered Warrior's Treason. And both you and I know damn well the punishment for that." the alien went very, very pale.

Taking several steps back the girl tripped over her own feet before Cyborg caught her and lowered her to a chair "Babe, what's the matter?" the everyone save Gar huddled around her.

Suddenly she fired off bolt after bolt at Gar. She flew straight at him with a scream that deafened those around her. This was pure unbridled rage. Her star bolts were more like lightning than the usual missile. Quicker still though was the white armor that covered Typhon's arm.

Supergirl shook her head "Warrior's Treason is the highest standard of cowardice. To desert either the one you are bonded to or a friend who you've traded blood with. There is no disgrace anywhere near that level. It means to be totally ostracized from every part of their culture." She didn't know what to do but watch as her leader fought the enraged woman.

Starfire screamed back with poisoned barbs of everything that she could think of, the final one however made him laugh.

 _Laugh._

At the top of her lungs she snarled "You have no heart!"

The sudden outburst of mirth caught them all off guard. The greatest hero on the West Coast literally fell onto the floor clenching his stomach from his wild laughter. As he stood up he shrugged off his jacket and grabbed the bottom of his shirt "Right you are princess. Right you are…" and he lifted his shirt to reveal a body with less than 2% body fat. For many people this would ring of extreme health. But it is the opposite. His muscles and bones were in stark contrast against his skin and right where his heart should have been there was something else.

It appeared like his heart had been ripped out and the current…object inserted in it's place, it was a orb, it appeared like a dense perfect green fog had been wrapped in the smallest glass possible and forced into his chest cavity, the slight bump that it caused gave his body an asymmetrical profile.

But it glowed with a deep inner light that mesmerized. His voice drove them out of the trance and held them to the here and now "This is what happened when I died the last time. The majority of my chest cavity is empty-ripped out, this Egg acts as my heart and lungs, and many other organs either in part or whole." there was a silent flutter in the orb and an eye stared out before moving away.

Abby took a step forward "Gar…what are the Eggs? They seem really important and you, Slade and Scales are after them…"

Pulling on his uniform he turned "Follow me. We're going to the most secure location in this galaxy." he stepped past the elevator and onto the stairs "The Incubator…" as they started walking he continued "There are seven Eggs, Ocean, Jungle, Mountain, Artic, Sky, Desert, Serengeti. But as to what they are…that's an entire story in it's self." he continued talking as the group made their way down, down. Down…down…down…

* * *

American children are taught shit. We're told that Columbus discovered the world was round and that he was the first European to reach North American soil. If you have any sense of decency you'd realize that there was proof even before that. Roughly in 1003 A.D. the Northern Men settle in Canada and 1300 years before that the Egyptians and Greeks proved the earth was round using shadows. Columbus used a smaller figure and got away with getting the money.

But that's not what's important. What is, however, is that the Egyptians sent out an exploration party in each of the cardinal directions. Those in the North, South and West, for one reason or another didn't work out.

Those in the East discovered something.

* * *

He stopped as he reached the ground floor and stared at them for a moment "Why does every culture have a dragon-like figure in it's mythology? Why are large birds part of major cultures including those of North America and the Middle East? Cultures that have had no way of communicating up until the last two hundred years?"

Vic shrugged "Must be an innate fear, I mean we're stuck on the ground…" glancing at three of the four women he amended "Mostly"

Gar tilted his head "Cyborg. For someone so smart you're an idiot. Humans fear the unknown. Never what they know. Dragons existed. As have a multitude of other creatures that no human can ever see again…unless they descend."

Raven, the one who had, they thought, the largest amount of knowledge of demonology, asked "Descend?"

The solid wall in front of him parted to reveal several scanners, pads and other verification hardware. Everyone was suddenly on guard "Raven, you deal with Perdition, which is the top most level, the smallest…and if claims be true, the least vicious." his hand flew over the pad and the wall moved to show more stairs.

* * *

Perdition sits on top of the Seven Demon Realms, each of them embodies one aspect of the world. Sahlain the Elder was a scholar who was assigned to record the journey East, they came out of Egypt and hit what would be the Silk Road. Somewhere in in the Middle East they found a Manticore. It had killed and eaten people from the local villages for some time before they found it.

A Manticore is a unique creature in that it can talk. When Sahlain and his team captured it the creature regaled them with tales of the levels of the Demon World. How the demons would deposit their young on this plane so that they could grow.

* * *

The group continued to descend but Raven cut in "Wait…they captured a Manticore? But those were able to fight on par with dragons!"

The leader stopped, the flashlight in his hand the only light as they continued down the stairs cut into the very cement "Yes, manticores are dangerous…but Sahlain even more so." the original Titan's remembered their fight with a certain dragon and wondered how a human could stand up to something of that caliber. "Sahlain is considered one of the three most powerful mages ever. There are some who would argue that the body of the depiction of Ra is actually him"

* * *

There is a huge gap of what we know about the expedition. After the encounter with the Manticore there's about seven years where we have no idea what he did except for what's written in his journal. Some how they got onto this whole 'bind the gates' thing. For each layer of the realm they found a representative, a manticore from the desert, a roc from the air and bound them in an Egg. It served to cut us off from the demon realm. Occasionally one like that dragon will slip through but it's nothing like it was.

Anyway, the next place we see anything about him other than a blurred recount is on the borders of modern day China. We _think_ the route he took was from Egypt through Israel and Jordan and across Iraq and Iran before he turned northeast heading up through Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. At some point they cut straight through Kazakhstan before spending time in Russia. Cutting through China they went into India and Nepal. Apparently looking up to see which direction was east became a priority again because they cut back through China until they hit the Yellow Sea near Shanghai.

There rumors of a land across the ocean got to them. They went to Japan and stayed there for a few months taking on vast amounts of provisions for their trip across the pacific.

…There is a theory. If they had island hopped it wouldn't have been hard to make the majority of the journey. But we know they didn't. Their wreckage is close to Oregon, why the hell would they be way up there?

* * *

"Do you think they just drifted off course?" Richard questioned.

Abby sighed "I don't think so, I mean they would have had to start drifting a lot more noticeably north then east at some point"

Barbra, being carried by her boyfriend looked deep in thought "Well, they weren't as precise in those days so maybe they had different signs and they were from Africa so the stars and stuff would be a lot different…"

"Something doesn't make sense about it…if he was so powerful couldn't he have just cast a spell to lead them to fresh water and land hopped like you said?" Kara through out loud.

There was an unnerving smile, more like a sly bearing of fangs from her leader before Raven cut in "It wouldn't have been hard at all. Finding spells are some of the most basic and, unless there's a very high level concealment spell, very straight forward." she turned to Gar "So the better question is what is this theory?"

"The theory is they were hunting something…a _very_ special something…." he trailed off "each level has an alpha and a ruler, the alpha are the top of the food chain, nothing can actively hunt them but they are generally few in number while the ruler is not that far down and has numbers…granted these are human distinctions. They were hunting the ruler of the Ocean. A kraken. A baby by all means since an adult has six eyes, three on each side each taking up the same amount of vertical space as one of our normal squid. But each eye is the size of the moon." the group looked at him numbly.

"Each creature they captured was used to seal the entrance of the demon realm, thus they became the Eggs, the door way. There are a trio of interlaced locks with the third on top making it impossible to work on the lower two, but that third one is interlaced with the other two, a very efficient way of doing it." they finally stopped in front of the final door. The air now felt heavy and cold, like the bottom of the ocean with some creature waiting in the dark for you-it's prey.

"But this didn't end well. The kraken pulled the ship under before the third seal could be placed. That's why the Ocean Egg is so important. If they could study it they can break all the other Eggs open and fling Earth in to the demonic world." with those ominous words the door slid open.

Seven dark metal pedestals sat in a circle each with a white cushion on top. There sat the one Egg that could ruin them all.

Seeing one not embedded in Typhon's chest they could see it wasn't a perfect orb but elongated horizontally, with the long side facing them, there on the front was the shape of the kraken, a monster with twelve tentacles some beneath the waves while others were in the air poised to strike.

In the muted darkness of the room the Egg's blue inner glow cast an ominous silhouette against the wall…something moving. It looked like water in the shape of the creature and before any of them could react one limb swiped across the room and knocked all of them, save Gar, in to the wall. The green man walked over to the Egg as they picked themselves up and looked at each other in shock. They were drenched.

His fingers glided across the surface and he whispered against the deep blue. The light within grew brighter and brighter before the Egg seemed to let out a happy gurgle at his touch. The empty chest cradled the crystal like a babe before slowly lowering it back on it's cushion and continuing to pet it.

Then he started to sing. It was something none of them could recognize but it filled the air without hesitation and calmed everything. The lullaby continued until the light died down to a bare pulse and the phantom yawned before falling asleep and fading.

The way back up the stairs was harder, the hit the majority of them took was enough to bruise and the knowledge seemed to physically weigh on them. Many of them were scrabbling for something to break the air around them. It took a moment but Kara spoke up "Gar, what did you do to Scale's door?"

He never stopped "Nothing outside of the animal kingdom"

Richard snorted "I don't believe that."

"What I tried first was the combination of basic biology and physics" the ground floor was just ahead of them "I used echolocation to try and find the resonate frequency, that failed so I tried to find a pitch that would spin the molecules like a microwave does with water." the door closed behind them silently somehow making it more ominous. "After that I channeled the bombardier beetle."

Star touched her boyfriend's shoulder "Beloved Victor, what is this beetle of bombs?"

As Victor explained the natural canonist they finished the climb back to the main room and Gar spoke again "But instead I used different ingredients and catalysts. See, everything was out of nature"

There was really no way to dispute that fact. Their climb up the stairs to the Ops room was silent for only a few moments before Richard asked "Gar…is there no way to change your mind on us staying?"

Vic added in "Even with him being the boyfriend of one of your teammates?"

The shifter clenched his jaw for a moment "The only way is for there to be no way to transport you to the Watchtower. I never said that I was opposed to their relationship, I simply said no to him being here, if she takes frequent trips to visit him I don't mind."

"What if they got more serious?" came from the sorceress.

"The Titans are a stepping stone for everyone but me. When, not if, they move on they are free to do whatever their hearts desire and I will help her anyway I can" he paused to turn and look at Batgirl before continuing up. "While I don't want to hurt my teammates I have been stabbed in the back by more people than I care to count and I only trust those I give my trust to." it sounded ridiculous but there was another meaning that they could see. He wouldn't take anyone else's word on who to trust, Superman and Batman's recommendations meant nothing, he only judged people by what he himself experienced.

Their arrival at the large room seemed to herald a large explosion and a laugh from the mainland that everyone could hear. Supergirl tightened her cape as Slipshot checked her guns.

The commander shook his head with a grimace "That was Butcher…all of you are staying here. None of you are ready for that" he walked to the window before opening and leaping out. The bird that he transformed into was already close to the main land as they managed the few feet from their position to the window.

Batgirl used the computer to pick up feeds from around the city before narrowing in on a once CCTV that now watched over the entire alley of rubble that the building became. There was a wet squelching sound that caught their attention and Slipshot was nearly sick at the sight.

A man, Butcher probably, he was very good looking, he wore a white butcher jacket covered in blood and black pants, his short brown hair and matching eyes looked down at what he was doing with pleasure. He was pulling the woman's head against his pelvis and groaning. She was obviously dead, part of her head was caved in and four knives were hilted in her back. Another sound happened and Slipshot was sick on the floor. There was a click of teeth. He was defiling her eye socket.

Typhon landed and shifted before commanding "Butcher, put her down and come with me or I will kill you"

The man smiled a very pleasant smile before groaning "G-Gimme a second, you have no idea how good this feeeeeeeellllllls!"

A shadow flickered across the edge of the screen and Typhon whipped around and covered himself in the armor before a roar and flash took over the camera. It was a maelstrom comparable to the one Typhon created to burn through Scale's door.

As the picture cleared no one could believe their eyes. A rocket. The commander's reflexes coated him in the armor before his fingers entered the metal immediately around the detonation cap, preventing the initial charge from igniting, the pressurized liquid explosive had found it's way backwards through the holes his fingers had made in the fuselage and into the propulsion tank before being expelled as propellant.

As the flames sputtered and died he dropped the near empty metal case before hissing "Anti…" as the bone armor receded.

The new target stepped out and like his cohort he was also very pleasant to look at, short blond hair, green eyes wearing a flak jacket and jeans. Anti dropped the launcher before growing "That's impossible!"

The newcomer leapt at Typhon as his partner finished desecrating the girl. Anti threw a flying punch as the hero stepped to the side and grabbed the arm and twisted down until the joints locked and then pushed more until the assailant was laying on the ground on his side with a foot on the other arm to pin it in place. Two words were all that came next "Surrender."

"No!" then there was several sickening cracks. The locked arm's bones were pushed straight down into the chest cavity killing Anti instantly as they penetrated the heart. There was no blood on the body and for a single second something deeply powerless and sad covered the killer's face before he turned to Butcher.

Zipping his pants the necrophiliac looked between the two "Okay, that was crazy…let's see what else you can do!" a cleaver appeared in both hands and together they moved for horizontal chops to the neck. At that moment the onlookers realized why they were not to fight the Twelve. The blades cut through the air at extreme speeds, they barely registered as a flicker on the screen, far too fast for any sort of defense.

The one armed man responded by coating his wrist through his shoulder in armor and grabbing one hand and halting the other blade with an elbow, there was not the rasp that one would expect from metal on bone, nor was it the screech of metal on concrete or ceramic, but it was a deep resounding gong. "C'mon now that's not even fair!" came from the attacker.

"If you want fair play a fucking video game" came before Butcher was pinned, he was on his back with one leg over and one under his neck, the under also pinning his left side, above his stomach was Typhon's hand fingers curled into talons. "This is your last chance. Stop"

The free hand gave him the finger.

"Execution" and it was over. With the sentence the claw had pierced his stomach and broken his spine ripping the tail end of the break up through the hole and he shattered the neck with his legs. Standing the Titan sighed deeply as a troubled look carved itself onto his face and he flipped open his communicator "Chief, I need a containment up on Washington and 58th. At least two bodies along with Anti and Butcher…tell me when the funerals are, I'd like to apologize for being too late" the device clicked closed as the man shifted again and took flight as a crow.

The flight back was slow. It was always hard to fail to protect someone. Very, very hard. For those in the Tower the flight was far less about the failure but about the recognition. This was not like the deaths in the underground hideaway, these were not reaction based but purposeful attacks with the intent to kill.

It also demonstrated how far above them their opponents were, the missile would have killed all of them except maybe Supergirl but that was an unknown at best. The knives would have killed her. They moved at a speed beyond ever her sight yet they didn't break as they met armor.

As the green man opened the window the silence seemed to deepen until those waiting could not take it. Richard's voice was meant to be strong but came out a weak "Was it necessary to kill them?"

The wrapping covering both eyes and the stoic face made him impossible to read "You make a fundamental mistake. You assume I have a choice. I don't want to kill. Of all the creatures on earth do you think there are more than two that like to kill for fun? All but two members of the previous incarnations were monsters. They wanted to kill, maim, torture, rape, experiment and terrorize for their own gain. Butcher wanted to make his own personal hell where he was free to cut people how he saw fit and play with them as he wished, Anti wanted a place where he could watch people die as he slowly stole their energy. In that respect they are shallow, driven by their pathological desire to do something grotesque."

Kara stepped forward "Who were the two that weren't monsters, who did you sympathize with?"

For several moments nothing else was said and she feared she stepped over an invisible boundary "Garret Walker and Francis Xavier. Walker was born into a depraved world by a great and compassionate man. He was the product of a one night stand where his father was seduced. He was also infected with some sort of STD, I never did find out which one. When he was born his mother took him to his father and extorted nearly 100,000 dollars out of him before disappearing with another man. Walker's dad raised him well for the years they had. He taught his son many things you would look for in a model person. But he felt betrayed. When his father died nobody was there for him save Walker. The funeral was a lonely thing with only the son and pastor. Walker felt that without his father there was nothing for him and that a world that could leave a man like that to die was worthless. His goal was to make the world a memorial for his father."

Abby put a hand on Gar's shoulder "Why was he not a monster? He wanted to kill everyone."

"None of you here will realize how close I came to becoming him. His entire world crumbled down in an instant and there was nobody to pick him up. His own shattered pieces cut and mangled him. That was me many years ago."

Victor couldn't understand it, but he accepted it "Who was the other?"

"Francis Xavier was a person who suffered from either an ability he couldn't control or contained a special case of luck. It was almost like karma was instantaneous around him. When he was ten he was bullied by one person. After school that same day the boy was hit by a car that shattered his arms and legs right in front of Xavier. It was recommended by a councilor that he write in journals and he continued to do so until he died. At twelve a cyclist knocked him down on the sidewalk, the bike hit a pothole throwing the rider into an oncoming truck, the brain damage caused instantaneous death. There are innumerable cases like that within a seven year span. When he turned eighteen he started to feel that he was responsible for the deaths, there is the possibility that he also suffered a mental condition. He moved from church to church, temple to temple trying every religion to try to lighten what he perceived to be his burden until he felt none could do it. He latched on to an obscure theory that to reach heaven you must go though hell and he took it literally. Xavier believed that the only way he could save his soul was to tell God himself that he wasn't responsible."

Raven snorted "Yet he killed dozens of people."

"Wrong. He only killed one person. Himself. He was too fevered in finding the Eggs and he slowly attracted the other members, he didn't care what they did as long as they got the information and the Eggs. They were the ones that killed people."

Gar seemed to deflate as he slowly let gravity pull him down into the chair. He had many moments of failure but it never got easier, they simply piled up on top of one another. There was a deep sigh before he stood and walked to the computer. Clark Kent appeared looking a bit harried "Gar! I wasn't expecting to hear from you."

Though they couldn't see Gar's face they knew it was blank and Superman tensed "Kent. Anti and Butcher destroyed the ship. Get the former Titans to the Watchtower."

He was met by a stunned face "I-I can't! We're at our capacity moving people around trying to combat the Twelve! We need everyone in the field we can find."

"Put Bruce on." it wasn't a suggestion. It was an order. Soon the dark mask filled the screen "Tell me what's going on."

Sliding the hood off one could see the bags under his eyes in stark contrast "The Twelve brought on hundreds of mercenary and assassins to tie up our hands, they're just here to tear stuff up and force our hands. We cannot move any more people."

There was a grit of teeth before a despondent sigh "Well you need two people in Steel City, Titans East captured an Egg"

The CEO snorted "Why don't you pick it up yourself?"

Gar wasn't in the mood to deal with Bruce looking down on him. He tapped his chin and took on the look of a man trying to remember something and said "There's a city that the Twelve were targeting…which one was it again?"

The man on the screen scrunched his nose "Fine. We'll cover it until they get back" the screen turned black as the communications ended.

Vic looked a bit uncertain "When did they call you?"

Without looking Gar stared "This morning."

The metal man asked "What time will they get here?"

"Tomorrow morning. Now get some sleep, looks like you might be here awhile."

Richard, in a moment of bravado, asked "So you're keeping us on as Titans? Well, you need to ask first." it was his rebellion at how Gar had treated them.

The target of his barb stilled. He turned slowly "Nightwing" he started coldly "I would never ask you to return to the Titans. It would be a disgrace to all of those who _died_ to stop what you ran away from. That goes for the rest of you, but you" he said jabbing a bruising finger into Nightwing's chest "you most of all. You had the chance to do something with this team, you were the one who fractured this team. You, I am the most disgusted with."

Gar stormed out leaving everyone in shock.

* * *

It started around 4, a subtle whisper of something wrong. A whimper. Pathetic and weak it actually got through the soundproofing and woke them, very slowly they gathered outside of one room. Standing outside they realized the one person who should have heard it first wasn't there. The whimpering came again, and this time it didn't stop but was echoed several times, Richard looked at the group before pointing at Kara and Abby. The door slid open and they witnessed something they would never have believed.

Gar was cured up on his bed his hand clutching his missing arm and his sleeping body trembled as he relived…something.

Then he woke up.

Though he didn't see them.

The only thing they could see in the faint moonlight was the glow of his single eye before he screeched and flung himself at them. He tackled Kara before his fist slammed into Abby, he threw his arm to the left where it hit Vic and made him stager before a foot lashed out at Starfire. In those first seconds anyone who even paid an iota of attention to him could see he wasn't recognizing them, he was in the midst of a nightmare when they entered and his body reacted.

By this point Kara and Abby had managed to stand up as another kick sent Richard flying into Raven and both of them into Babs. Kara tried words "Gar! It's us!"

"He won't hear you. You weren't there" then a different language filled the air, something archaic and powerful. Gar's soul seemed to return before he turned to the speaker and collapsed against Bee. The leader of Titans East caught him and gently lowered him to the ground before looking to Speedy who cradled their own sleeping baby "Take them to the Ops room, I'll make sure he remembers where he is"

The archer nodded before leading the group off. There was a moment where the man that lay on the ground shivered before he woke up "W-what happened?" he looked up at the woman "Bee?"

She nodded "Come on, Speedy got the others to the other room…I think they need to know what happened."

He did go to the ops room but only ordered "Go back to bed. We'll deal with this in the morning. Bee, Speedy, you and Fade get your normal room." turning around they all did as he said, sleep was clawing at them before they could really fight it.

That was how Bee and Speedy were reunited with the former Titans.

* * *

The morning was very tense. The first one up was Gar, Karen and Roy followed shortly after. Coffee was made and Fade's bottle was heated up. The others came in as a group, Babs and Richard had stayed up late talking and Raven trying to calm down. She had never heard Gar scream like that.

Breakfast wasn't quiet, there were greetings and introductions made, Fade, a little seven month old girl with black hair, tanned skin and brilliant green eyes watched them all. After the initial 'good morning's and 'Hi this is' it was silent save the sounds of breakfast being eaten.

Surprisingly the one who broke first was Raven, slowly she put down her fork and looked at Bee "What language did you speak to Gar in last night?"

"No idea" came as she held the bottle a bit higher for her little girl.

"Then why were you speaking it?" Raven was getting agitated for reasons she couldn't understand.

"Because I taught them." the minor sounds stopped as Gar set down his fork "I taught them because it is a language of power, it is engrained in every cell of your body"

The sorceress turned to him "What is it?"

His answer was very quiet "The first Azar spoke it before she created your language. It is far older than that though." Raven stiffened but did not say anything after that.

Kara absent mindedly rubbed her shoulder where he hit her "What happened last night?"

Behind the bandages everyone could tell Gar was glaring at Raven "Last night I heard something unpleasant" Raven was snapped out of her trance and looked down at the table with a blush staining her cheeks "It brought up one of my…torture sessions" he hesitated over the last two words.

The atmosphere seemed to worry Fade and she started to cry, Speedy was halfway standing when she started and Bee had left to the toilet. The cries grew louder and Gar started to sing. It was the same song that he sang to the Egg and the effect was the same, she calmed down and he took her from the archer.

With only one arm the position was different, the babe was laying on his bicep and his forearm came out from her other side and his dexterous fingers carefully tucked her blanket around her as his deep gravely voice softly filled the world.

Time seemed to slow for the others and material things seemed far away. Without pain and bewilderment running through them the voice was something they could pass the time listening to. Fade slowly reached out and grabbed his fingertip with her hand and the other rested against his palm.

Bee's return was noticed only after the song had ended "She used to cry whenever he held her" she near whispered. When she got closer and noticed that Fade was awake she smiled at the little one. The girl smiled at her mother and waved at her. Taking her baby Bee spoke up "We do have the Mountain Egg, thought you'd want to put it with the Ocean."

On the rust colored Egg was a large cat, much like a mountain lion but with larger ears, almost bat like, no tail, six paws and two small wings on it's back shaped more like a shark's dorsal fin. Carefully Gar took the stone and cradled it, his lips brushed the surface as he murmured "Come little one, let's take you to your sister" and he walked off.

Starfire opened her mouth but Bee cut her off with an upraised hand, it was several minutes later before she lowered her hand "Before you guys ask within his hearing, no, Fade is not Speedy's child" said archer came in and Abby pointed but Bee smirked "No, not within _his_ hearing"

The most normal woman of the bunch nodded "Okay, but who's is she. Not that she's not freaking adorable!" she nearly squealed.

Bee slowly handed her the girl before speaking quietly "The Ten were put down four years ago but fragments of the group never died. Last year some of them hired a highly skilled assassin to kill Titans East and Gar, who was alone at that point and with us to train me in case I ever had to take over. I caught the flu so I was staying back while the others were on a call." she went very quiet "He was the most evil person I've ever encountered. He…raped me. Gar came back just as he was about to kill me…"

Speedy took over as Bee seemed to struggle with the memory "Gar had left before we handed the criminals we were called out for to the police, said something didn't feel right. Caught the guy with the gun aimed at her head. There was no chance for him to pull the trigger. Few months later she started showing signs."

The chatter died as the original Titan's realized how far things had changed, when Robin was the leader rape was something foreign to them, no villain would even attempt that…now they were targets. The door slid open again and Gar looked at Barbra before the two parents "Would you mind staying an extra day? I need to fix Bab's spine"

Bee shrugged "Don't see why not. How do you plan on fixing it?"

Rolling his shoulders he replied "Like I did Kid Flash"

Speedy unhooked his comm from his belt "I'll tell the others than."

Gar turned to Abby and Kara "I'll need you two with me in the med bay in case anything goes wrong." including Barbra in the conversation he continued "Meet me there in an hour and we'll get started."

* * *

The operation, in theory, was pure simplicity. Gar would make an incision along Bab's lower back and enter in a microscopic form before traveling down her spine to the damaged nerves and reattaching them and coating them with a polypeptide bandage that would jumpstart the nervous signals.

In reality it was a daylong operation. The first few hours were spent going over old x-rays and getting new ones done to see how Barbra had changed over time. Barbra was sedated and the incision made but due to the size constriction on his body it would take Gar almost half an hour to get to the area before he could start the work. For Abby and Kara it was an experience they never wanted to feel again. The wait was an expression of helplessness. There was nothing they could do if anything went wrong.

Between every tick of the clock seemed an eternity. Waiting and watching for nothing but the steady beep of the monitors.

Was time passing or were they?

* * *

Bee watched the others sit about the room, the groups were easy to see. Speedy was the only one willing to talk to Richard, Raven was mediating by herself and Starfire was talking quietly with her boyfriend.

Bee clenched her hands. How dare they? How _fucking_ dare they? Her anger burned brightly beneath her calm façade. Too many things had happened for them to just show up and expect to be friends again.

Bee caught her boyfriend's eye and jerked her head to the door, he nodded slowly and lifted a brow and the message came across loud and clear- _you or me?_

She mouthed _you_ before speaking up "Alright. Training session. I want to see how close to his level Gar-sorry Typhon has you"

Bee and Fade went into the control room as Speedy put his bow aside and rolled his shoulders before pressing his mouth into a thin line "You guys can use whatever you want" his stance was vaguely a boxer's but his hands were open and his back hand was a bit low.

Starfire asked "Friend Speedy…all four of us against you? That is most unsporting"

His nose scrunched as the corner of his mouth tipped down "I'm not your friend. Gar is. That's the only freakin' reason I'm here. You guys tore him apart. Now unless you want this to be a real beating I suggest you get ready"

From above a bell dinged and Speedy put Nightwing on the defensive with a punch to the face that was barely blocked, unfortunately the knee to the gut wasn't. or the kick to the face. As the kick jerked his head back Speedy grabbed one of Nightwing's arms and used it to pull him in a circle and throw him at Raven who used her powers to grab him without damaging him any more, but it blocked her view of Speedy for a few brief moments where the archer slid underneath the hovering man and punched her in the gut followed by one to the side of her head. Raven's arms slid around her stomach as she doubled over from a second hit to the stomach leaving her jaw wide open. The uppercut lifted her three feet off the ground before she hit the ground and dropped the former leader on top of herself.

Jerking to the side Speedy dodged the green blast and rushed between the couple that still stood, a quiet "shit' came from Cyborg as both of them stopped firing, knowing the alien would take more time he rushed around the metal man and tossed the small thing he stole from Nightwing on his back. The metal man spat out a few curses as his limbs shut down from the weak EMP. Nothing vital would be compromised, Cyborg was too well designed for that but it did take him out of the fight for the foreseeable future.

Using the mechanical man as a vault the archer kicked the alien princess hard in the head, she was briefly disoriented as her head hit the floor and her vision blurred. As her vision righted itself she saw Speedy kneeling over her with a knife at her throat. The blade was a brilliant white and she could feel the droplets of blood running down her throat "This knife was made by Gar using the sharpest bone he could make. I wouldn't suggest moving."

Two beeps echoed across the room and Starfire was thrown onto her feet as Speedy sheathed the blade. Barbra walked in on shaky legs, one hand was the wall and Kara and Abby were watching like hawks from right behind her.

Richard's eyes widened "How…"

A very tired Garfield answered "There is no wound, no disease, no problem that nature cannot fix." he stepped in looking very ragged, his body trembled and his movements were stiff.

Cyborg asked "What happened to you?"

The target said nothing as he leaned heavily on his cane, it wasn't until Kara asked that he answered "The smaller you are the faster life takes place, I was one of the smallest forms I could be. The six hours I was working were closer to three weeks. I'm tired, hungry and in need of a shower. I'm taking care of those right now." then he stumbled out leaving the others to gawk.

Richard rushed over and tried to wrap his arms around her but she stopped him "I need to stand on my own for awhile. I don't want to depend on anyone forever."

Cyborg opened a panel on his arm "We should get you into rehab-"

"Gar's already got a plan light years better than anything the League or a doctor could come up with" Speedy snapped "And if you'd get your heads out of your asses you'd realize his plan's already worked. In the time you've been here he's completely remade you, you could beat anyone you've dealt with in the past."

Raven said blankly "I doubt he'd do so well against Trigon"

The archer stared at her through the white lens "Do you really think Nature will make the same mistake twice?"

* * *

Gar slowly made his way to his room before stumbling to the small attached bathroom and pulling out a blank prescription bottle with his soldier meds and popped one into his mouth before quickly taking a shower and passing out on his bed.

Deep within his dreams there was peace. The most peace he had experienced since he had left the Doom Patrol. The irony would have made him laugh if it wasn't so damnably sad. Here he was fixing the girl that had essentially become the target of most of his former team's ire for simply existing and barely taking into account her boyfriends horrid actions.

Perhaps things would be better if he had died any of the innumerable times? Would his death have been some sort of penance? There wasn't any real reason why he survived nor any real reason for him to have tried.

Those who made him survive wouldn't have an answer either so they were of no help and he believed that those he survived for wanted him dead more than anyone else.

How laughably sad it was.

* * *

Deep within his lair Scales fiddled with wires as his newest creation was taking shape. A voice he knew all too well came from behind him "Well, you called it, the idiots are dead."

Turning the swivel chair and sliding it across the room, the stuck wheel making a dull screech he responded "They were not as idiotic as they seem. Even since we got out of jail he's improved tremendously and let's not forget the power his sheer rage has given him."

Shuddering the guest nodded "Yeah, pretty scary shit when he sliced those robots in half."

Scales adjusted his glasses "To bad he didn't do so to Adonis."

"Eh, we can all wish can't we? But isn't he your son?"

Scales turned and laughed in the other's face "Judas, he is as far from my son as can be, we have never met and he is a cousin's nephew. I really don't care what happens to him but he is far to arrogant for me to even enjoy watching his defeat"

The now christened Judas said "So you want him dead?"

"Of course. He's an annoyance"

"Well any ideas for our next plan, I'm thinking anything I do would get torn to shreds."

Scales' malicious smile was hidden by the computer screen "There's a folder on the desk beside you I think would be suitable for your particular talents."

"Thanks!"

As the door closed Scales snickered "No, thank _you_ "

* * *

Aries was a picture of relaxation, her uncovered feet were resting on the coffee table and her arms were over the back of the couch, her eyes were nearly closed when her communicator chirped. With an aggravated sigh she opened the device "What is it?"

The man on the other end said "This is the Titan's leader-"

"Bull fuckin' shit. Lemme guess, you're Nightwing."

The man was taken back "Yes, I'm Nightwing. Now who are you?"

Blinking twice she questioned "Are you serious? You called without even know who it was? Are you retard-no, don't answer that, I know it's a yes"

"I'd like to ask you about Gar-"

"It's Typhon you disrespectful little shit" she growled clenching her fist and putting her feet down she snarled "He did **your** job after **you** left with **your** tail between **your** legs because **your** bed hopping escapades pissed someone off. If I had the authority your ass would be dead. I would have shot you myself the instant you came into my sight."

He growled "He's brainwashed you, I never would have thought him capable."

She let out a brutal laugh "He never told me why the team broke up. In fact the only reason anyone on my team knows is because we interrogated the Justice League and even your beloved mentor realized you fucked up." she jabbed at his picture with a finger "The nicest people I know, all of them, agree that you are the one that broke the team. You couldn't keep your head out of your ass or your dick in your pants long enough to not shred the team apart."

Nightwing was silent with his eyes wide-he was used to respect and some degree of awe. He knew things were different when none of Gar's team were pleasant with him but this was something else all together, she was downright disrespectful and she had not heard it from Gar but made her own conclusions based on unbiased information.

She continued "I wouldn't tell the boss about this little call. Unlike your former team he has no qualms about meting out punishment for insubordination."

"How was I being insa-"

"Calling yourself the Titan's leader when you up and disappeared is a real good way to get some intimate time with Typhon's claw in your eye socket" she snapped. A sudden smile split her face "Never mind, tell him and get someone to send me the footage of him kicking your pathetic ass." she snapped her communicator closed and those around her stared at her.

Terra started "Wow, too bad you didn't pass the com around"

Her boyfriend snickered "You wanna give him a piece of your mind too?"

Sighing sadly she nodded "You don't realize how deeply he needed them, even one of them leaving would have shattered him. All of them was the worst thing anyone could have done to him. And they did it with out even asking him if he would go with them. He's been betrayed by the only people he thought he could trust."

* * *

Kara and Abby were on the roof by themselves enjoying the silence between them. Suddenly Abby murmured "I feel so bad for him…"

"What can we do but stay by his side?"

The redhead turned to her "He thinks we're all going to leave him"

Kara sighed "Abby, the Titans was never designed to be a permanent thing or even more than the team that was here."

"But that's changed."

"Indeed it has. I…like it here. It's more like home than anywhere else I've ever been, I'm accepted" she gently squeezed her girlfriend's hand.

Abby smiled "Everything here is comfortable and just right for being yourself."

Kara's smile faded a bit "I just can't figure out how he changed so much from what everyone who knew him before says."

"Maybe sometime he'll open up enough to us" Abby said as she leaned into Kara.

"Maybe" she said "…Maybe…"


End file.
